The Last of Us: The Series: Season 1 (To Be Continued)
by Revanite201
Summary: <html><head></head>Joel and his teenage companion must deliver a teenage girl to a group that say they will save mankind from a ruined world in a post apocalypse that sends them cross country through pain, love and friendship. Rated M for language/Strong & Explicit Themes. Adventure/Horror/Romance/Friendship/Hurt comfort/Suspense. Please Review. (Season Continues January 14th 2015!)</html>
1. Chapter 1: Outbreak

**What up Last of Us fans Welcome to The Last of Us, the first season. This will be exactly like episodes you will see on a normal show, all episodes will be uploaded weekly starting on Wednesdays, with the same chilling cliffhangers and memorable moments. This story will be combined with amazing fan fiction stories for future seasons by some of the most amazing writers who wrote their own sequels to such an amazing horror game developed by naughty dog. To see some of their work on the game check their pen names at the bottom. For those who are new comers to the story I suggest you play the game yourself its incredible only for PlayStation's 3 and 4 If you live somewhere it is unavailable you need to find a friend who can bootleg the sucker for you so try it out it's amazing you'll love it so Enjoy the first episode, "Outbreak"**

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><p>The Last Of Us<br>Season 1

Episode 1  
>"Outbreak"<p>

Life was good, the job, the home life everything was perfect. Joel and his little brother Tommy worked as Carpenters in Austin, Texas. The money was good but relations with the boss was not, Tommy has a dispute with him but being the older brother, Joel keeps him in check. It seems like a normal fruitful life worth having these. It was lunch time and the brothers sit on the new roof of a well built house in a new suburban development.

"Whats the difference between men and women?" Tommy asked.

"This a joke?" Joel countered.

"No, serious."

"I don't know, what's the difference?"

"Alright, I never met a woman who knew how to turn off a light. They're born thinking a switch only goes one way… On."

"Oh man…" Joel mutters.

"They're struck blind the second they leave a room. I mean every woman I ever let have a key, I swear to god, its like I come home, house all lit up. And my job apparently, because my chromosomes happen to be different, Is because I've gotta walk through that house, turn off every single light this chick left on."

"Is that right?" Joel said raising an eyebrow in amusement.

"Oh yeah, Reverend Thomas is preaching to you now buddy." The brothers laugh. "Then the same chick, mind you, she'll bitch about global warming. You see this is when, Reverend Thomas wants to quote from the guy gospel and say, 'Darling, maybe you and every other pair of boobs on this planet just figure out the light switch, you see goes both ways, maybe you wouldnt' have such global warming.' Tommy explained.

"Jesus, boy. You actually said that?" Joel asked.

"Mmm. A polite version." he chuckled "Still, man, that earns me this look you will not believe of loathing you would not believe. And that's when the Exorcist voice pops out." Tommy explained. "'YOU SOUND JUST LIKE MY DAMN FATHER!'" Tommy said impersonating a demonic voice, sharing a laugh with Joel. "'ALWAYS TELLEN' ME ABOUT THE DAMN POWER BILL, TELLIN' ME TO TURN OFF THE DAMN LIGHTS'" Tommy finished

"And what did you say to that?" Joel asked.

"I know what I want to say. I want to say, 'Bitch you mean to tell me you been hearing this your entire life and yet you are still too damn stupid to learn how to turn off a switch?'" Joel busted into a fit of laughs before Tommy confessed he went with a polite version with that as well, to which Joel said was very wise.

A moment of silence passed by, Tommy decided to break the moment by bringing up Sarah. Tommy was concerned about Joel being torn between work and his home life.

"So how's, Sarah?"

"She's good. She's at her soccer tournament."

"You should be there."

"I want to Tommy, but Simmons is always on my ass with this development and I just become the most close mouthed son of a bitch ever."

"You should go, I'll cover for you. She needs a father to be there to cheer her on."

"She needs her mother. You know Jenny she... I still keep hearing her say 'Sometimes I wonder if you care about us at all.' That was the last thing she said to me before she died giving birth to Sarah." Joel said breathing in deep and letting out a huge sigh. "The difference between men and women? I'd would never say somthing that cruel to her, especially if it was the last thing I'll ever say."

Tommy put his arm around his brother and pulled him in for a brotherly hug.

"Go to Sarah's game. I'll take over, we'll deal with Simmons later. I mean hell it's your birthday the big 3 and 0." Tommy said.

It took some convincing but Joel was the only parent Sarah had left. Joel then decided to head off, to spend his birthday with Sarah. With his wife gone, Joel had to take care of her now and with that, be there for her. Despite losing track of time because of his broken watch, Joel was just in time for the final game to see Sarah play soccer. She did a phenomenal job and with that won the first place trophy, she was surprised to see her father run up to her after their victory. Joel couldn't have been more proud of his baby girl, With that they spent the entire day together not worrying about work or his 30th birthday. The Entire day was about being there for Sarah.

But after returning to work to clock out for the day, Tommy had a little dispute with the contractor Simmons. They both got the cold shoulder, but Tommy like to take things too far and both had to work the graveyard shift that night. It wasn't till Simmons collapsed, and went into a seizure, another case in 5 hours. Apparently a sickness has been spreading across four states, all workers had to go home after that. The entire way home Joel couldn't help get a bad feeling that something terrible was going to happen. Joel arrived back home still on the phone with Tommy.

"Tommy, Tommy listen to me! He is the Contrac-. He is the Contractor, ok? I can't lose this job! I… I under… Lets talk about this in the morning, ok, we'll talk about this in the morning. Alright, goodnight." Joel saw Sarah waking up on the couch. She must have been waiting up for him to get home.

"Hey." She said with exhaustion in her voice and eyes.

"Scoot." he motioned her to scoot over for him to sit down with a huge sigh of relief and rub his eyes with his own exhaustion.

"Fun day at work, huh?" She joked.

"What are you still doin' up, it's late."

"Crud, what time is it?!" Sarah shot up to look at the clock, it was only ten minutes till midnight.

"It's way past your bedtime." Joel sighed.

"But its still today." Sarah replied with relief as she reached at the side of the couch to pull out a small box and presented it to Joel.

"Whats this?" Joel asked taking the box.

"Your birthday... You kept complaining about your broken watch, so I figured... Y'know."

Joel forgot about it, he was surprised to notice he didn't mention to her that today was his birthday and that Sarah managed to remember on her own. Joel continued to open the box to reveal a brand new and yet surprisingly expensive watch for his taste.

"You like it?" She asked.

"Honey this is nice, but I... think its stuck." tapping the watch.

"What?! No, no, no." She cried looking at the watch to realize he was teasing.

"Oh, ha ha." She mocked before lying back down.

"Where did you get the money for this?" He asked looking over the watch's fine craftsmanship.

"Drugs...I sell hardcore drugs." She teased putting out her full Texan accent.

"Oh good, you can start helping out with the mortgage then."

"Tch… Yeah you wish."

The two watch tv together and only a few minutes passed till she fell asleep again, Joel picked her up and took her back to her room and lied her on her bed. He tucked strands of her short blonde hair behind her ear.

"Good night baby girl." Joel said softly.

Sarah began to have good dreams that night, winning the soccer tournament, spending time with her father, and giving him the best birthday gift in a long time. All seemed well until the ringing from the phone woke her up from her peaceful sleep. She picks up the phone from her nightstand and answers, wondering who was calling at this hour.

"Hello?" She answered with a yawn escaping from her voice.

_"Sarah! Honey I need you to get your daddy on the phone."_

She recognized the voice that had a sense of panic to it, "Uncle Tommy? What time is it?" She asked.

_"I need to talk to your dad there some-"_ That's all Tommy managed to get out before the line was disconnected.

"Uncle Tommy? Hello?" She cried, but no response the line was completely dead.

Sarah got up from her bed, with a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach, she began trolling to the bathroom to splash a little water on her face to wake her from her after slumber. As she was splashing some of the cool water on her face her eyes drew to the news paper that was near the sink. The front page of the Texas Herald had a story of 'Admittance spikes at area hospitals' a 300% increase due to mysterious infections.

"Dad? Daddy?" Sarah called walking down the hall towards her father's room.

Sarah can still hear the TV blaring from his room, as she opens the door she finds him gone.

"Where the heck are you?" She muttered to herself.

Sarah's attention drew to the TV with a live special news feed from the city of Austin just a couple miles from where they live.

_"It appears that what we initially reported as riots seem to be somehow connected to the nationwide pandemic. We've received reports that victims afflicted with the infections show signs of increased aggression and-" The news reporter was interrupted by soldiers who were shouting to clear the area. "there seems to be some commotion-"_ In mid sentence the feed cuts off from an explosion.

Sarah was terrified at the sight of seeing the explosion from her dad's bedroom window. She lightly sprinted out of her dad's room calling out to him.

"Dad?!" She shouted with fear gripping her going down the stairs, "What the heck is going on?" She wrapped her arms around herself, afraid.

Sarah can hear distant sirens of police and emergency services going by and barking from the neighbor's dog. Her eyes drew to the sight of her dad's phone vibrating. She picks up to see he had received 8 missed calls and 2 texts from Tommy.

_'Where the hell are you? CALL ME!' 2:04 AM_  
><em>'On my way.' 2:11 AM<em>

Sarah puts down the phone and was suddenly startled by the sudden silence of the neighbor's dog with a terrifying yelp. It was quiet... To quiet. Sarah walks into the study to see her dad, Joel run in the house and shut the backyard's sliding glass door behind him breathing hard and a look of terror on his face. Sarah was horrified at the sight of him being covered in blood, panicking.

"There you are." She spoke.

"Sarah." Joel said pleased that she was safe while gasping for air. "Are you okay?" He asked pulling out a case from the desk drawer.

"Yeah."

"Has anyone come in here?" He asked rushing his movements as Sarah walked next to him seeing Joel loading a revolver.

"No. Who would come in here?" She began to shake,

"Don't go near the windows, just stay back there!" Joel shouted loading the gun and putting more ammo in his pockets.

"Dad, you're kinda freaking me out. What's going on?" Now the fear was getting a little intense,

"It's the Coopers. Something ain't right with 'em. I think they're sick." Joel muttered, his hands still shaking trying to put the bullets into the cylinder of his revolver.

"What kinda sick?" Sarah asked, before being startled by their neighbor, Jimmy running into the sliding glass door.

He was bleeding all over, from the nose, ears, eyes, mouth, some blood transferred from him onto the door on impact. Sarah was frozen in fear hearing the growls and screeching Jimmy was making.

"Jesus! Jimmy?!" Joel asked?!

"Dad?" Sarah gasped as she was petrified.

"Honey. C'mere. C'mere." Joel said pulling her behind him.

Jimmy continued bashing himself through the glass door shattering it, his body twitched as he hopped to his feet, as soon he saw Joel and Sarah he growled lowly.

"Jimmy, just stay back." Joel ordered pointing his revolver at him. But Jimmy was out for blood as he stepped closer, "Jimmy I'm warning you!" But without warning from Jimmy he attacked by charging at Joel which caused his to point and pull the trigger

_*BANG*_

Jimmy fell dead, lifeless and a mere shadow of his former self. Joel turned to Sarah who was in shock of seeing her dad killing someone she knew.

"You shot him..." She stuttered in fear.

"Sarah..." Joel whispered trying to calm her down,

"I saw him this mornin'." her voice trembled.

"Listen to me. There is something bad going on. We have got to get out of here. Do you understand me?"

"Yeah." She sniffed.

Headlights illuminate the living room, someone pulling up to the front of Joel's house.

"Tommy. C'mon." Joel said grabbing Sarah's hand and heading to the front door. Joel and Sarah see Tommy getting out of the car.

"Where the hell have you been? You have any idea what's goin' on out there?" Tommy asked with frustration but froze to the sight of Joel's clothes stained with blood.

"I got some notion."

"Holy shit. You got blood all over you."

"Go on baby get in there." Motioning Sarah to get in the back seat before turning to his brother, "It ain't mine. Let's just get outta here." He said.

"They're saying half the people in the city have lost their minds."

"Can we just please go?" Joel asked as he got in the passenger side and Tommy hopped in after him and begin pulling out and on the street.

"Some sort of parasite or something. You gonna tell me what happened?"

Joel looked back at his daughter, then back to Tommy, "Later." He said.

"Hey, Sarah. How are you holding up honey?" Tommy asked her.

"I'm fine." She assured. "Can we hear what's on the radio?"

"Yeah sure thing." Tommy said switching on the radio but all there was static. "No cellphone. No radio. Yeah, we're doin' great. Minuet ago, newsman wouldn't shut up."

"They say where to go?" Joel asked.

"He said, ah... Army's puttin' up road blocks on the highway. no gettin' into Travis County."

"That means we need to get the hell out. Take 71"

Tommy just drove, wouldn't stop for anything not even the family who needed help thanks to Joel. After crossing lands and taking side streets they passed by the local hospital onto the highway, the problem was everybody had the same idea of getting out. Heavy traffic stop occurred, there was no getting out. The three were then shocked to see people getting attacked and ripped apart by more crazed people infected by the mysterious plague. Joel forced Tommy to double back and take more side streets through the town, trying to get by hoards of people running for their lives. After passing though people and back on track all the sudden,

"Look out!" Sarah shouted

_*CRASH!*_

They collided with another car sending their car to flip on its side, everything went dark. Joel's vision was blurred but he woke up to Sarah's voice. Joel could see another infected tearing into another person from the car that collided with them, worried about Sarah's safety Joel began to kick out the windshield. He crawled out only to be attacked by another infected person who gives all his strength to bite him. But baby brother Tommy was there to save Joel by smashing a brick against the infected's head, killing it. Joel led Sarah out of the car who had trouble walking, her leg might have been broken. Joel handed Tommy his revolver, "Keep us safe!" he said. As he picked up Sarah and the three began to move on with the crowd who were running for their lives against random people who were infected.

Cars collided with each other, and colliding with the gas stations causing them to explode. Passing by people who are being mauled by the infected people, people who are on fire. It was like the end of the world, but in this case it was. There was no way to go, and trying to keep Sarah calm from being in shock from everything she saw so far. the only chance was going through the Alleyways. Joel, Sarah, and Tommy encounter a couple of infected and were eventually cornered. While in the restaurant, Tommy struggles to hold the door closed.

"Get to the highway!" Tommy shouted, pressing his weight onto the door.

"What?!" Joel said.

"Go! You got Sarah! I can out run em'!"

"Uncle Tommy!?" Sarah cried.

"I Will meet you there!" Joel shouted.

"Hurry!" Tommy said.

Joel without question pushed through the entrance door and began to cut through the land near the river up to the bridge at the highway.

"Daddy we can't leave him!" Sarah Cried.

"He's Going to be fine!" He assured.

Joel just ran and didn't look back, he knew mentally he was being chased by infected not to mention the growls and roars he heard creeping up on him. They were suddenly saved by rapid gunfire eliminating the infected that were in pursuit.

"It's okay baby we're safe, we're safe." Joel assured, Joel sees a soldier standing at the hill side from the highway. "Hey! We need help. Please, It's my daughter I think her leg is broken."

"Stop right there!" The soldier shouted aiming his weapon at them.

"Okay... We're not sick."

"I got a couple of civilians in the outer perimeter. Please advise." The soldier said into the radio.

"Daddy, what about Uncle Tommy?" Sarah asked.

"We're gonna get you to safety then go back for him, okay?" Joel said.

"Sir, there's a little girl." The soldier said. "But... Yes sir."

"Listen buddy we just been through hell, we just need..." Joel stopped to see the soldier raise his weapon. "Oh shit."

Before Joel could run away, rapid gunfire erupted and Joel felt a searing hot pain in his side causing him to drop Sarah, and fall and roll down a small hill. The Soldier ran to him prepared to finish him off.

"Please don't..." Joel begged.

_*Bang*_

A shot erupted and Joel shut his eyes but to see himself unharmed, but Tommy came from behind the soldier who was shot dead from a bullet to the head, then Tommy had a look of horror on his face.

"Oh, no..." His voice broke.

Joel tuned to see Sarah clutching her stomach and blood began to flow from it.

"Sarah?!" Joel said running to her side ignoring the pain from the bullet wound in his side. Sarah gurgles and cries in excruciating pain, "Move your hands, baby."

But she whimpers and hot tears run down her face but tries to let out words but she feels air was escaping her, the world was getting darker. Joel looks in her eyes and there was nothing. The light from her eyes went out, She was no longer in pain but in peace in a case of eternal rest in end to sorrow, grief, everything.

"Sarah? Baby?" Joel sobbed, "Don't do this to me, baby. Don't do this to me baby girl. Come on..." Joel let it all out, the sobs of grief for the loss of his baby girl, lifeless in his arms. "No. No. Oh no, no, no, no! Please! Oh god...Please, don't do this." Joel sobbed and held her close to him, his whole world came crumbling down.

_"You kept complaining about your broken watch, so I figured you know… You like it?" She asked._

_"Honey this is nice, but I... think its stuck." tapping the watch._

_"What?! No, no, no." She cried looking at the watch to realize he was teasing._

_"Oh, ha ha." She mocked before lying back down._

_"Where did you get the money for this?"_

_"Drugs...I sell hardcore drugs." She teased._

_"Oh good, you can start helping out with the mortgage then."_

_"Tch… Yeah you wish."_

_After he softly tucks strands of her short blonde hair behind her ear. Joel stopped at the door and turn to see her sleep away sleeping like little angel before turning off the light _"Good night baby girl."__

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><p><strong>I was in tears for this, I hope you liked the first episode. Turn in on Wednesdays to catch new episodes of the Last Of Us, please review your thoughts and check out some amazing stories of the last of us by Exangellion, Drexbann15, and WritersWayOfLife. Be sure to review to their stories and favorite them as well I'll see you next time.<strong>


	2. Chapter 2: Quaratine

_**The Last of Us**_

**_A/N: The following OC was inspired to me by WritersWayOfLife, Exangellion, and Drexbann15 Thanks for giving me an idea on my character and character relations._ **

Episode 2  
>"Quarantine"<p>

The world slowly drifted into chaos, mankind was coming to a drastic end. Those who survive out side the zones must fend off infected and hunters alike. With people abandoning the cities, in the 20 years that have passed mother nature moved in consuming the lands with her beautiful plants and trees, coating the abandoned buildings in bright green vines a perfect harmony for the animal kingdom. Governments fell, martial law came into power, those who survived since it all started sought the Quarantine Zones. Most fell because of bandits, riots, and infected. A group calling themselves the 'Fireflies' claim responsibilities for these riots, for holding onto a dying dream. It was the end, and people had to live with that.

_SUMMER_

It was his birthday, his 50th birthday. Joel was getting old but that didn't stop him from surviving and still make a living here at the Boston Quarantine Zone. But on days like this is a day he would like to be left alone, a day he would like to forget. Joel stirred awake from someone shaking him and he can hear distant knocks at the door, he looked up to see a young teenager, his slicked back golden yet dark ashy blonde hair shined from the sunlight from the cracks of the boarded up windows. He was still wearing that B-3 Sheepskin Bomber Jacket and fingerless hard knuckle combat gloves and the rest of his clothing, all black with different shades of gray but mostly black.

"Jesus, what the hell Rylan?!" Joel grumbled.

"Wake up, Tess is at the door." Rylan said.

"Then you get it." Joel spat, annoyed.

"Like she's here for me. Besides you need to get up." Rylan scoffed.

Joel got up his head swimming, and was still annoyed for the fact that this kid was almost as tall as he was. But Joel began staggering towards the front door. Poor guy hasn't been sleeping well, the bad dreams don't help. Especially the shitty apartment they have been living in. With Tess still banging on the door it made Joel's head spin and hurt a lot, Rylan noticed the whisky bottle on the table and figured he's coming down with a hangover.

"I'm coming!" he shouted as he strolled to the door and unlocked it, Joel opened the door to see his partner Tess walk in.

"How was your morning?" She asked looking over the condition Joel was left in and pouring herself a drink from the bottle of whiskey. "Want one?"

"No. I don't... want one." He muttered shaking away the exhaustion and hangover.

"Yeah I think you had enough." Rylan smirked, Joel just glared at him looking into those Icy blue eyes but suddenly his face fell by remembering how he got that scar going down his right eye, but it wasn't his fault or job to look after him no matter how much Tess tried to convince him.

"Well I have some interesting news for you." Tess said suddenly breaking the tension.

"Where were you, Tess?" Joel countered sounding frustrated with her.

"West End district. Hey we had a drop to make." Taking a sip from the glass

"_We_." He corrected, "We had a drop to make." handing a rag to Tess.

"Yeah, well you wanted to be left alone remember?" She said dabbing the rag in what was left of the whiskey and began applying it on the cut on her cheek.

"So, I'll take one guess. The whole deal went south, and the client made off with our pills. Is that about right?" Joel spat leaning against the counter.

Tess scoffed, "Deal went off without a hitch." She assured pulling out cards from her pocket, "Enough ration cards to last the three of us a couple of months easy."

"Want to explain this?" Rylan asked pointing to the bruises on her cheek.

"Don't worry about it Riley..." She said.

"It's Rylan." He spat.

"You used to love me calling you 'Riley' when you were little."

"Yeah, when I _was_ little, I'm not a kid anymore."

"You're 15." She reminded.

"Tess... the time for kids is over, the world had gone to shit." he countered but earns him this look of '_Watch your damn mouth_' from Tess.

Joel was desperate to break the awkward moment, It kind of reminded him and Tommy. Another time he would like to forget. Pretty much everything that had to do with family. Rylan and Tess tried to keep it from getting to that point to keep the old man in check,

"So what happened, Tess?" Joel intervened.

"I was on my way back here, and I got jumped by these two assholes, alright?" She confessed. "And yeah, they got a few good hits in, but... Look I managed."

Joel takes the rag from her and starts tending to the wound for her.

"So, these 'assholes' still with us?" Joel asked.

"Tch...That's funny." she replied.

"You find out who they were?" Rylan asked.

"They were a couple of nobodies, they don't matter. What matters is that, Robert fucking sent them." She replied.

"Our Robert?" Joel asked.

"He knows we're after him, he figures he's going to get us first."

"That son of a bitch is smart." Rylan said but Joel and Tess shot a look at him. "Sorry, He's a son of a meanie and his such a smarty pants. Come on!"

"No, he's not smart enough. I know where He's hiding." Tess said with a smirk,

"The hell you do." Joel doubted.

"Old warehouse in Area 5. Cant say for how long though."

Joel still doubted it but it was better than nothing, "Oh, I'm ready now, Yeah?" Joel said.

"I'm coming too." Rylan spoke, but Joel and Tess crossed looks. "Aw, come on guys. I got experience too you know. I can fight, and even shoot." Rylan pleaded.

Tess didn't like the idea but she saw how much Rylan had buckled up the past three years, and how much Boston has been helping him cope with everything that he's been through before arriving, "He's right, Robert's a slippery bastard and Rylan's got the skills to catch him if this goes south... again." Tess said.

"I'm not trusting my life in the hands of a child." Joel argued harshly.

"Rylan's a black belt in Jujitsu, and he's become a better shot than either of us combined."

Joel sighed but he was convinced, "Alright. But he's your responsibility, what ever happens to him is on you." He reminded.

"Understood." She said, "Rylan, Stay close." she said to him,

He nodded and joined Joel and Tess on the hunt for Robert.

Coming out of the apartment complex, the streets of the QZ was a dreadful sight. Not many kids besides Rylan were around and not the kind of people Rylan would make friends with. Ever since he arrived he's been better with himself and while around Tess and Joel. Joel didn't have any kind of quarrel with the boy, he just wasn't ready to take care of a kid again, and decided to keep much of himself away from him as possible. For Rylan's own sake at least,

"The checkpoint's still open." said Tess.

"Only a few hours till curfew." Joel added.

"We better hurry up then."

"Thanks for letting me come along Joel. I mean this could have not come at a better time, I've been selected for Military boarding school. Apparently they were '_Impressed_' with my skills in close quarters." Rylan said.

"Thank Tess, just remember why you are here." Joel reminded.

"What about you Joel? You been selected to any bullshit yet?" he asked.

Joel only chuckled, "Nope."

"Yeah, I bet." Rylan chuckled with him.

The three stroll down the streets of the Boston Quarantine Zone. They pass by the destitution center that's still closed, from Rations being depleted. All the cards they had probably won't do them any good for a while. Infection rates have been rising, more and more are being infected from living in condemned buildings, Rylan felt sick to his stomach seeing someone being shot down in the street trying to run away from the military, he's seen to much death the past three years. Rylan looked out to the distance to see the ruined city of what was once the birth place of a once great nation but now down to its last safest place that they knew of. A lot of people took their chances on the road, but in truth no where is safe in or outside the zones, no matter how hard you try to believe. Joel, and Tess try to get by outside the law in the zone as smugglers, the best way to get medicine, ammo, food, and selling them for ration cards, that was their way of surviving. Because of their '_business_' Joel and Tess had to work on new identities to slip by the checkpoints unnoticed, luckily Tess managed to get new papers to get to Area 5.

"What's your business here?" The soldier asked while looking over the three's passbooks.

"Got the day off, visiting a friend." Joel answered confidently.

The soldier looked at all three then nodded, "Alright, move on through."

_*BOOM!*_

The truck that past by suddenly explode, Joel, Tess, and Rylan felt the heat from the explosion and machine gun fire erupts from the distance killing some of the military guards at the checkpoint.

"Fireflies!" A soldier shouted, after shutting the gate to Joel's and Tess' destination.

Rylan was dazed from the explosion, he can hear Tess' voice calling his name behind the high pitched ringing sound but he managed to slap himself out of it and began bolting in the opposite direction along with Joel and Tess. The trio take shelter in the '_smuggler's den_' a hangout for all smugglers and access ways to the tunnels running all over the zone.

"Fuck... so much for the easy route." Rylan spat shaking himself from his daze rubbing his temples from the coming headache from the loud sounds.

"They're gonna close all the checkpoints. We're gonna have to go around the outside." Tess said.

"Outside the wall?" Joel quirked an eyebrow.

"Or we can just let Robert go." She replied.

Joel snorted, "Cute."

Tess turned to another smuggler who ran up to tell them about the incident, she reminded him they just went through it.

"So, how's the east tunnel looking?" She asked.

"It's clear. I just used it. No patrols." the smuggler assured. "Where are you off to?"

"Pay Robert a visit."

"You too?" he asked.

"Who else is looking for him?" Tess countered.

"Uh. Marlene. She's been asking around, trying to find him."

"Marlene? What does the fireflies need with Robert?" Rylan asked.

"You'd think she'd tell me?"

"What did you tell her?" Tess asked all slapping each other with questions.

"The truth. I got no idea where he's hiding."

"Good man. Hey, you stay out of trouble, alright? Military's gonna be out in force soon."

Tess, Joel, and Rylan headed to the tunnel's entrance that was hiding behind a television set and covered by the books on the shelves. As soon as they all drop down the smell just pretty much bitch slapped Rylan in the face.

"Agh. God, this place reeks. They need to watch what they throw away down here. Worse than the last time I came through here." He said.

"Let there be light." Tess said turning on the lights.

The trio head to the small station where their gear was, Joel was surprised on how Rylan managed to get his weapons.

"You mind telling me how you got this?" Joel asked holding up Rylan's side arm. A customized Smith & Wesson Sigma with a stainless steel slide and brown checked grips with a laser sight with a suppressor.

"I got it from some guy who was a hardcore gun maker before the outbreak, had his own shop. His name was Kendo, he called this the Silver Ghost. he gave to me apparently I look like someone he used to know who owned this, whatever that means."

"And this, Jesus boy how could you walk around with this?" Joel said picking up the Smith & Wesson Model 500 equipped with a laser sight.

"Joel..." Tess said shaking his head.

Joel turned to look at Rylan who looked down, an awkward silence passed.

"It was my dads. He...used it to kill my mother and himself when they were bitten. There were only four bullets, for each of us. But now there's only one left... For me." Rylan explained feeling a wave of sorrow remembering a bad memory.

The Gun was broken after that incident. Luckily Kendo managed to refurnish and fix the magnum for him by replacing the barrel and cylinder with stainless steel and the standard grips with a nice polished wooden set with a golden medal on the side for good luck.

"Kendo said he made this into one of the only two magnums in the whole world that is more powerful than any hand gun ever made. But it only has one shot, I'm saving it for me." Rylan said tucking it into its holster. Grabbing his sling backpack and tucking his '_Silver Ghost_' into his under arm holster.

"I'm sorry Rylan." Joel said, Rylan nodded tending to his gear. Joel turned to get his gear putting everything in his backpack, gas mask, food, med kits and did ammo check for his Colt defender, "There's not a lot of ammo for all of us to begin with."

"That's why I got this." Rylan sheathed his Mercworx Sniper long blade, "I keep this for close encounters."

"Better make your shots count." Tess said.

* * *

><p>The trio go through the tunnel out side the walls, the entire town was covered in plant life, Mother nature really did lighten the place up the past 20 years.<p>

"Ain't been out here in a while." Joel said, looking around the bright green environment.

"it's like we're on a date." Tess said.

"Well I am the romantic type." Joel teased.

"You got your ways." Tess smirked.

Rylan got annoyed easily, "You two need to be alone?" he asked. But the two chuckled at his response.

The three press on through the nearby building to cut through to the Area 5, where Robert was supposedly in. Robert double crossed them by stealing their weapons shipment. Been running from them ever since, for his sake they hoped he still has them.

"Hold up. Spores." Tess warned, the three put on gas masks to prevent being infected from the spores that pollute the air.

When an infected dies and if not disposed properly, spores are released into the air killing anyone who breaths in the stuff. The people know that the infection is a parasitic fungus that develops Cordyceps around the brain creating a devastating brain infection and corrupts the host turning them into vicious killing machines. Joel, Tess, and Rylan were on their guard and continued to push through the building that was barley holding together at that. Place was a death trap for the smugglers who dared try passing through, those who weren't smart enough ended up being torn apart by Runners that still roam the area.

Rylan felt sick watching a poor soul getting torn apart by two Runners, Joel managed to choke one to death that was blocking their path. it has been a long while since he had to deal with the infected, but that never stopped him from killing every of them he's encountered. Rylan pulled out his knife and in a blind rage he charged into the room using hand to hand and evasive maneuvers, to get close enough to drive the blade into the heads of the Runners that were feeding on the unlucky smuggler.

Rylan began wiping the blood from the blade of his knife, "Assholes." he whispered through his mask.

"Are you crazy?!" Joel shouted.

"Joel! Enough, he did us a favor, now we can get out of here." Tess assured, "But give us a little more warning next time, alright?" She said to Rylan.

"Yeah, sorry." Rylan replied.

Finally they were outside drinking all the fresh air after removing their masks and away from the Spore infested building.

Tess takes one huge deep breath."Ahhh... some fresh air. That's one thing I love about the outside. Fuckin' hate the smell of the city."

"Why don't you ask Bill to get you some of them air fresheners." Joel asked.

"Hey If they weren't expired, that'd be a good idea."

* * *

><p><em>Area 5<em>

Tess, Joel, and Rylan arrive at Area 5, where Robert was nearly in reach. Tess has been around these parts a couple of times getting to know the locals, she has all the right connections, for a price of course. Tess had to give up some ration cards to get by this area which proved to be no problem.

"You know he's expecting us." Joel said.

"That'll make it more interesting." She joked. Rylan and Joel smirked.

Tess walks up to a local, "I'm looking for Robert." she holds up a ration card. "He come through here?"

"Half hour ago, he went back to the wharf." he said taking his payment.

They passed through the shops into the nearby courtyard, Joel's intuition was right on the money, Robert's men were expecting them.

"Here we go." Joel whispered as three burly henchmen arm themselves.

"Let us through." Tess said.

"You three need to turn back if you know what's good for you." The henchman said.

"Our beef isn't with you, we just want Robert." Rylan spat, Tess grabs his arm.

"You don't want to do this." She said.

"Turn the fuck around and leave now."

"I'm not going anywhere without Robert."

"Bitch, I will bash your skull unless you turn around and get your dumb ass outta here."

"Fuck this."

_*Bang*_

Blood and gray matter explode from the henchman's head as he fell down dead, Tess' gun barrel still smoking, the other two henchmen duck for cover and start returning fire, the three smugglers also duck behind cover, trying to make every shot count as they were low on ammo.

"Joel, try and flank them, I'll take the right." Rylan suggested.

"No, I said I'm not putting my life in the hands of a child."

"Stop being a bitch and just do it!" He countered pulling out his gun.

Joel didn't argue and he pulled out his side arm and going around the henchmen's left flank, Joel peeks over and lines up a shot and gently pulls the trigger.

_*Bang*_

The bullet strikes the second henchman in the chest killing him instantly, the third starts firing at Joel's location, but the swift teen takes aim and fires a shot, which strikes the third goon's arm.

"Arghh!" he cried. Tess stood and fired a final kill shot ending the threat. The goon's body falls to the ground lifeless.

Rylan stood still on guard and looks to Joel, "Make every shot count right?"

"Right... nice job kid. You handled it pretty well." Rylan was good on the fact he got on Joel's good side, finally.

"Yeah, nicely done Texas." Said Tess.

Rylan nodded. "You too."

Joel holstered his gun in his waistband. "How the hell did he get these guys?"

Tess heads down the corridor, "If Robert's good at one thing its writing blank checks."

The smugglers may have gotten past these guys but the question still remained, how many men does he have? Will they be able to capture Robert or be torn apart by god knows how many men and firepower, with only limited means to survive a uneven assault on Robert's operations?

* * *

><p><em><strong>That's it for this episode, what are the odds? What's Rylan's story, will we be able to figure out his tragic past and what happened to that 3rd bullet for that revolver? Review your thoughts and until then tune in next week for more the Last of Us.<strong>_

_**A/N: Yes I took a couple of features from Resident evil. But that's it.**_


	3. Chapter 3: Delivery

_**The Last Of Us**_

Episode 3  
>"Delivery"<p>

It wasn't easy, but survival wasn't suppose to be easy. No matter how low or high your chances are, you always had to be on guard to protect those around you. Joel once told himself that, but still he lost Sarah and was excommunicated with his brother, Tommy. But once again Joel is put in this situation with Rylan and Tess, was this a second chance to make things right with himself? Or is this going to be history repeating itself? No matter what the case seemed to be to him, Joel pushed and pushed to survive. Robert's men wouldn't stand a chance against the three of them combined but with what they had, those chances were looking up.

Joel, Tess, and Rylan spent hours infiltrating Area 5, trying to get past the armed forces Robert possessed by using stealth at limited resources. The sun was almost down and curfew hours were closing in, Tess needed to punish Robert for crossing her. Tess made the right call bringing Rylan along, he had the skills of getting close and quickly take down the enemy, Rylan was just about 6'1 feet tall enough to choke hold guards to death. He was just as good at it as Joel.

"How much further?" Rylan asked Tess.

"C'mon, the docks are this way."

Joel pulls on the chain to open the shutter door, "Let's do this." She said as they head under to the docks, Tess was relieved to see Robert standing around tending to his operations. "There's our boy. Cocky son of a bitch."

"We don't have time for this." Rylan said as he vaulted over from cover, "Alright Robert! Calvary's here!" He shouted. Robert bolted into the warehouse and the four goons around charged at the boy but Rylan was a black belt in jujitsu, Rylan aimed for the limbs clenching their arms and hands, shattering them in multiple places and kicking in other's legs in, hearing the bones snap like twigs under foot quickly dispatching them and Rylan chased after Robert.

"RYLAN!" Tess shouted.

* * *

><p>"RYLAN!" Joel shouted. alerting other henchmen to their presence, those with guns opened fire on him and Tess. Tess and Joel had to use all their ammo to take out the armed goons while finishing off the rest of them with their fists.<p>

"That goddamned kid, what is he thinking?" Joel argued.

"No time for that Joel, grab their ammo and lets get Robert!" Tess said.

Joel and Tess see Rylan in cover from more armed goons, "Roberts cornered in his office! But I only got a few rounds left." He informed.

"We got more!" Tess replied tossing a box of 9mm rounds to him.

Rylan checked the clip, 3 rounds left an one in the chamber. He peaked around the corner to see an armed goon hiding behind stacks of crates, with a possible ricochet point behind him. Rylan smirked and stepped back to use the laser sight to reflect the beam off the aluminum tanker that slightly reflected the goon position. He took one deep breath, "Hope this works." he whispered.

_*Bang!*  
>*Ping!*<em>

"Ack!" The goon falls dead.

"Holy Shit I can't believed that worked!" Rylan chuckled. The three together began unloading on the final goon shredding him with gunfire.

The three run through the office and see Robert there firing his gun, casing them to take cover at the door way.

"Stay back! Just stay the fuck back!" Robert shouted.

"We just want to talk Robert!" Tess replied.

"We ain't got fuckin' nothin' to talk about."

"Put your gun down!"

Robert fired his weapon again but was horrified to hear sudden clicking of an empty clip, "Go fuck yourself!" He shouted throwing the gun at them.

"He's running!"

"Robert!" Joel shouted chasing after him.

The three, chase Robert to the outside where they have him cornered, being ready to pay for his betrayal. He desperately tries to open the chained gate but with no success.

"Well hello Robert." Tess said.

Robert scoffed in defeat. "Tess, Joel. No hard feelings, right?"

"Not at all." She replied picking up a pipe.

"Alright..." Before Robert got very far he took a steel pipe to the kneecap, he tumbled to the ground cursing out the pain of the impact.

"We missed you."

"Look, whatever it is you heard, it ain't true, okay?"

"You wanna tell us where the guns are?" she asked. Robert nodded,

"Yeah, sure, but... its complicated. Alright?" Joel walked over and violently kicked Robert in the face before kneeling down and putting his knee over Robert's elbow ready to pull his arm backwards. "Stop, stop, stop!"

"Quit your squirmin'. You were saying?"

He sighed, "I sold 'em." he confessed, but Tess scoffed in disbelief.

"Excuse me?" she said.

"I didn't have much of a choice, I owed someone."

"You owed us." She countered. "I'd say you bet on the wrong horse."

"I just need more time. Just give me a week." Robert pleaded.

"You know she'd might have done that if you hadn't crossed her. I learned that lesson." Rylan mocked loading more bullets into his empty clips. "Who has the guns?!"

"I..I can't." he said before Joel pulled back Roberts arm snapping it in two. Robert winced in pain, and Rylan pulled out his knife and held it to Robert's throat.

"Who. Has. The. Guns?" he said. Tess was a little proud of the boy, he was growing up so fast (Literally). But also afraid of what he might become since the incident.

"It's the Fireflies. I owed the Fireflies. Look, they're basically all dead. We can just go in there and finish 'em off?" Robert explained. "Get the guns? Whadaya say?" Rylan seethed his knife and stood back.

"That's a stupid plan." Tess said before firing two rounds into Roberts head.

"Well now what?" Joel asked. Tess shrugged.

"We go get our merchandise back." She replied.

"How?"

"I don't know. We explain it to them." She turned to Rylan, he nodded his support. "Look, let's go look for a Firefly."

"You won't have to look very far." A female voice said. The Three turn to see a wounded dark skinned woman come around the corner. Rylan knew who she was.

"Holy Shit..." He said.

* * *

><p>"Holy shit... There you go, queen Firefly." He said.<p>

"Why are you here?" She asked.

"Business, You aren't looking so hot." Tess replied, gazing at the bullet wound in Marlene's side.

"Where's Robert?" Marlene asked. Tess steps out of the way to reveal Robert's dead body. Marlene chuckles, "I needed him alive."

"those guns he gave you, they weren't his to sell. I want them back."

"Doesn't work like that, Tess."

"The hell is doesn't."

"I paid for those guns." Marlene countered. "you ant em' back? You're gonna have to earn them."

Tess turned to Joel then Rylan, "How many cards are you talking about?"

Marlene scoffed, "I don't give a damn about ration cards. I need something smuggled out of the city. You do that, I'll give you your guns back and then some."

"It could be a huge payday. This might be the job you're waiting for." Rylan said to Tess, she nodded.

"How do we know you got 'em?" Joel asked. "Way I hear it, the military's been wiping you guys out."

Marlene looked down, "You're right about that." She sighed. "I'll show you the weapons."

"Search the area!" The voice said.

"Shit, its the military!" Rylan whispered.

Marlene backed up slowly, "I gotta move, what's it gonna be?" she asked.

"I wanna see those guns." Tess replied. Marlene motioned the three to follow her away from the military swarming Area 5.

Marlene led them to the roofs, and cut through the buildings. She looks off to the distance to see an explosion occur.

"Holy shit, is that your people?" Rylan asked.

"What's left of them. Why do you think I'm turning to you guys?" Marlene said.

Continuing going through the building they accessed on the roof, once outside their destination was being patrolled by military personnel.

"That's the way out. The door under the bridge." Marlene said.

"I ain't a big fan of these odds." Joel replied.

"We can sneak by them, even though I know that's not your style."

"Well, not their style." Rylan pointed to Joel and Tess.

"Riley..." said Tess.

Marlene flinched at that name, "Riley..?" She said to herself.

"It Rylan to you!" He growled at Marlene "Shall we do this?"

Marlene nodded and the two go on ahead to put their stealth skills to the test, by silently eliminating the patrolling guards. Rylan drove his knife in the backs of the soldiers and use some non-lethal methods, once it was clear, Rylan signaled Joel, and Tess to hurry on up. Marlene's eyes were drawn to the dead bodies of her fellow comrades.

"Goddamnit, they got Warren." Her voice broke. "Goodbye friend." she sniffed.

"We should go, Marlene. There's bound to be more soldiers on the way."

"Your right. Your pretty good kid, you could be a great Firefly."

"Heh...I'll take that as a compliment."

The four finally arrived at their destination, they blocked the entrance to prevent any soldiers from getting in, but other than that, they were safe for now. The announcement for the curfew was established, it was going to be hard getting back to their apartment now. Finally She led them through a kitchen and unlocked a door.

"Kid, Give me a hand with this." She grunted.

The trip took a lot of Strength out of her, the door was pretty much jammed. Rylan walked over and kicked the door open. Marlene entered and collapsed to the floor.

"Let me help you." He said lifting her onto her feet.

"Get the fuck away from her!" A girl's voice came from behind him.

A girl brandishing a switchblade, slashed at Rylan, but he grabbed a hold of her wrist and pined her to the wall he then unsheathed his knife and held it up to her throat. The red haired girl's green eyes stared into Rylan's Pale emotionless eyes, he was about to kill her.

* * *

><p>"Let her go!" Marlene ordered.<p>

Rylan snapped out of his killing trance and let the girl go, he sheathed his knife and tugged the collar of his jacket and combing back loose strands of his ashy blonde hair with a huff.

"Recruiting kinda young, ain't ya?" Joel said.

"She's not one of mine." Marlene replied.

"Shit. what happened?" She helped Marlene over to some crates.

"Don't worry this is fixable." She assured. She locked gazes with the girl. "I got us help... But I cant go with you."

"Well then I'm staying." she decreed.

"Ellie, we won't get another shot at this."

Rylan's eyes widened and leaned towards Joel. "I think we found our cargo." Joel's raised his eyebrow.

"We're smugglin' her?"

"There is a crew of Fireflies waiting for you at the capitol building."

"That's not exactly close." Tess reminded.

"Your capable. You hand her off, come back here, and the weapons are all yours." Marlene said. "Double what Robert sold me."

"Speaking of witch where are they?" Rylan asked.

"Back in our camp."

"We're not smuggling shit until I see them." Tess stepped in.

"You'll follow me. You can verify the weapons. I can get patched up." Marlene said clutching her side, "But she's not crossing into that part of town."

"I want Joel to watch over her."

"Whoa, now I don't think that's the best Idea right now." Joel said.

"Bullshit I'm not going with him, especially blonde over there." Ellie argued.

"Fuck you too, red! What makes you think I'll babysit your hostile ass?" Rylan snapped. Ellie pulled out her switchblade, She made a lunge at him but Rylan countered by grabbing her wrist and twisted her arm behind her back, she tried to elbow him with her free arm but he grabbed it too and he was wrapped around her. Ellie felt his warm breath against the skin of her neck, She looked around into the boy's eyes, studied them. There was nothing behind their icy blue color but she described his eyes as Pale, and Emotionless, but at the same time kind of pretty. Ellie suddenly felt awkward and she dropped the knife and Rylan shoved her away almost toppling over. Rylan picked up the knife and retracted the blade and gripped it tightly in his hand. Ellie didn't say anything, she was somewhat afraid, Rylan's expression was blank like he flip a switch, he was a mystery Ellie might not ever figure out.

"Ellie..." Marlene called.

"How do you know them?" Ellie asked.

"I was close with Joel's brother, Tommy." She replied. "Said if I was ever in a jam, I could rely on him."

"Was that before or after he left your little militia group?" Joel asked.

"He left you too." She countered. "He was a good man."

Tess pulled in Joel and Rylan, "Look, just take her to the north tunnel and wait for me there."

But Joel scoffed, "Jesus Christ."

Rylan patted him on the shoulder, "She's just 'cargo', Joel."

Ellie walked up close to Marlene, "Marlene..." She said.

"No more talking. You'll be fine, now go with them." Marlene ordered.

Rylan leaned towards Tess, "Don't take too long."

"You, stay close." Joel said to Ellie. Rylan tossed Ellie's switchblade to the ground near her feet.

Ellie, Joel, and Rylan ventured off to the north tunnel, while Marlene took Tess to verify the weapons. What is Rylan's deal with his lack of emotion when it comes to violence and strangers? What's so special about Ellie? Whatever the case Joel has to watch over two kids now, his only fear was history being repeated if he ever got close to them.


	4. Chapter 4: Infected

**_The Last Of Us._**

Episode 4  
>"Infected"<p>

Joel, Ellie, and Rylan, Were almost at the north tunnel. Ellie still had her hand on her knife keeping a close eye on Rylan. She stopped to see the bodies scattered on the ground, she seen dead bodies before but still had to get use to the sight.

"Whoa... I heard all the shooting, but... what happened?" She asked.

"The Fireflies." Joel replied.

"The same things gonna happen to us if we don't get off the street." Rylan added.

Ellie didn't like the first impressions Rylan made with her, after all he did try to slit her throat and specially didn't like the way she was being treated. "You're the pro, I'm just following you, Joel." She said. Rylan scoffed under his breath. An announcement occurred, stating that a manhunt for the remaining Fireflies was in effect. All who were harboring fugitives will be prosecuted. Rylan cursed he wasn't going to go down for some hotheaded brat, Ellie still stood clear of him, still seeing his eyes in her mind.

As they pressed on, they managed to reach the old hotel building where the North tunnel was housed.

"How are we suppose to reach that?" Ellie complained looking up to the destroyed stairway of the old fire escape of the hotel.

"Just give me a second." Joel grunted, looking around for a boost.

Ellie looked around to see Rylan gone, she looked all around her but he was nowhere in sight. "Hey where did he go?" She asked.

"Why do you care?" Rylan said. Ellie looked up to see him sitting on the edge of the fire escape. She wondered how the hell he got up there. _'Figures...he climbed.'_

"I don't.." She said bitterly.

"Ain't you precious.." He teased. "Hurry up, we ain't got all day."

Joel growled under his breath and pushed and old dumpster against the ledge of the fire escape and climbed up, Ellie followed behind him. The three entered the building with a sigh of relief and away from the military.

"So this tunnel, you use it to smuggle things?" Ellie asked.

"Yep." Joel said.

"Like illegal things?"

"Sometimes."

"You ever smuggle a kid before?"

"No, that's a first." Joel said pressing on. "So What's the deal with you and Marlene, anyways?" he asked.

Ellie kept it vague for some reason but were simple enough. "I don't know, she's my friend I guess."

"Your friend, huh? You're fiends with the leader of the Fireflies. What're you, like twelve?" Rylan asked.

"She knew my mom, and since then she's been looking after me." She said. "And I'm fourteen, not that that has anything to do with anything." She added.

"Tch...Now that we can agree." Ryan said. Ellie was surprise to see his attitude was changed, like he flipped the 'switch' back on. She certainly like him this way better than a homicidal psycho persona.

"Huh...Better keep your hands to yourself there, Rylan." Joel said nudging the boy's elbow.

"Like I want to hit that." Rylan scoffed.

"Not if you were the last boy on earth." She hated him again...

"Well brace yourself cause those times are a comin'... Eventually."

"I wouldn't anyway." She snapped.

_"Rug Muncher... Figured as much." he_ thought.

Joel turned back to Ellie, "So where are your parents?"

"Were are anyone's parents? They've been gone a long, Long time."

"Hm. So instead of just staying in school, you just decide to run off and join the Fireflies, is that it?"

"Look, I'm not supposed to tell you why you're smuggling me if that's what you are getting at."

Joel took a deep breath, "You want to know the best thing about my job? I don't gotta know why. Be honest with you, I could give two shits what your up to."

"Well great."

The three walked in silence to the room where the tunnel is based, Joel unlocks the door and steps inside. Joel and Rylan automatically gets settled in but Ellie just stood around.

"What are you doing?" She asked Joel who plops down onto the couch with a huge sigh of relief to be off his feet.

"Killing time." He said closing his eyes.

"Well, what am I suppose to do?" Rylan snickered and shook his head, only Ellie just blindly flipped him the bird.

"I'm sure you'll figure that out." Joel said. Ellie walked by him looking down at his watch.

"Your watch is broken." she said. Joel clenched his fist, and Rylan shot up and grabbed her arm and pulled her to the other couch sitting by the window facing the outside of the walls into the wastes and shoved her down onto the cushions.

"The fuck is your problem?" She snapped.

"You just sit there and shut up." He growled. Sitting next to her and begins to sharpen his knife.

Ellie rubs her arm from Rylan's rough touch, "I never got your name." She said

"What did I just say?" Rylan spat.

"Fine! Bet its a girls name anyway."

Rylan paused for a minuet. "It's Rylan..." he said.

Ellie's eyes widened in surprise but a wave of sorrow fell on her.

"And don't even think about calling me Riley, or I'm kicking the shit out of you." he added.

Ellie only turned away, water filled her eyes. She tried to blink away the tears that threaten to fall after hearing that name, _'Riley...'_

* * *

><p><em>Three Weeks Earlier.<em>

Ellie lied there sleeping away in peace, a girl entered her room and slowly climbed on top of her and playfully acted like an infected and bit her neck. Ellie violently woken up and shoved the intruder off her, she reached under her pillow and grabbed her knife.

"Riley?" Ellie said still holding her knife glancing at the dark skinned girl who was non other than her best friend.

"Ow... I landed on my hip." She laughed off the pain.

"What the hell? I thought I was bitten."

"I know it was kinda awesome." She busted into a fit of chuckles, but Ellie was not amused. "You're not gonna kill me are you?" Riley asked. Ellie retracted the blade and stuffed it back under her pillow.

"I haven't seen you... in I don't even know how long." Ellie said.

"45 days." Riley said. "Well 46 technically." She corrected. Riley still saw the blank expression on her friend's face, "Want to know what I have been up to?"

"All this time..." She paused, "I thought you were dead."

Riley frowned, "Yeah... But here, look." She took off her necklace and handed it to Ellie. Ellie looked down at it and gasped in surprise.

"No way." She said looking at a symbol of a firefly etched into the necklace.

"Still no roommate?" Riley asked looking up at an empty bunk above Ellie's. "I had to sleep under Liz for three years and you know how bad that girl smelled."

Ellie's attention was still drawn to the necklace, she flipped it over to see Riley's name etched into the back. They were dog tags. "You're a Firefly." she said.

Riley shrugged with a smirk, then her eyes drew to a photograph of the two of them taped to the wall. She smiled and took down the picture to get a closer look.

"You still have it up." Riley grinned.

Ellie rushed to the door and peeked into the hallway looking both ways.

"What are you doing?" Riley whispered.

"I'm making sure I don't get caught with a firefly in my room."

"Relax. There are no soldiers on the entire floor."

Ellie scoffed and handed Riley back her dog tag. "Here, congrats." and tried to pull away but Riley gripped Ellie's hand tight.

"Hey. Are we cool?" Riley asked.

"'Are we cool?'" Ellie scoffed. Riley frowned.

"I disappeared and you're mad," But Ellie rolled her eyes and tilted her head back in frustration, "AND I owe you an explanation. Lets get out of here, and I'll tell you about it."

"It's almost morning and I have military drills. You know, where we learn how to kill fireflies." But Riley tossed Ellie a pair of pants.

"Put your pants on and let's go." Riley said.

Ellie didn't realize she was still in her boxer shorts, she scoffed and began to get dressed cursing under her breath that she might regret this.

"C'mon, When have we ever gotten into trouble?" Riley asked.

* * *

><p>Ellie shook from her trance she was staring out the window to the outside, It was already dark. Ellie still had dry tear tracks going down her cheeks. She looked to her right to see Rylan gone, He was on the other side of the room meditating. Rylan had no shirt on, his hair was messy and his light muscle tone gleamed with sweat from practicing his jujutsu. Ellie felt there was something about the boy, despite that he tried to kill her once they first met. Ellie didn't care much for guys but Rylan the boy's name who brought Ellie so much pain was different. Suddenly Ellie could hear Joel mumble in his sleep, he jerked awake.<p>

"You mumble in your sleep." She said rubbing her eyes. "I hate bad dreams."

Joel sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, me too." He got up and strolled over to Ellie.

"You know, I've never been this close. To the outside." She said "Look how dark it is... It cant be any worse out there... Can it?"

"You have no idea." Rylan said standing up from his meditation. Joel lit a lantern and the room illuminated, Rylan put back on his shirt, and began combing back his long hair till it was perfectly slicked back.

"What on earth do the fireflies want with you?" Joel asked Ellie.

Before Joel could even get an answer, Tess returned finally.

"Hey, sorry it too so long. Soldiers fuckin' everywhere." She said going up to Rylan and patting him on the shoulder.

"How's Marlene?" Ellie asked.

"She'll make it." Tess assured before turning to Joel and Rylan. "I saw the merchandise, its a lot. Wanna do this?"

Joel nodded, "Yeah."

Joel, Tess go into the next room. Rylan slips on his jacket and holsters his weapons. He can feel Ellie's eyes staring at him. "What?" He asked.

Ellie was rubbing her hands together, "N.. Nothing." She stuttered.

Rylan turned to look at her, he leaned down to look into her eyes but she looks away, down to the floor.

Rylan grabs her chin and quickly lifts it up, "Your eyes are red..." He said letting her go, "What's wrong with you?"

She scoffs and brushes past him into the other room, Rylan shrugged and joined her to meet with Tess and Joel at the lift down to the tunnel.

"Don't you think it's a bit strange that they're having us do their smugglin'?" Joel asked Tess.

"Marlene wanted to do it herself. We weren't their first choice, or the second for that matter." She explained, "She's lost a lot of men. Beggars can't be choosers."

Rylan walks up behind them, "Let's hope there's someone alive to pay us." he said.

"Someone'll be around." Tess assured

Joel tended to the generator and the four took the lift down to the tunnel entrance.

"So, who's waiting for us at the drop off?" Joel asked.

"She said that there's some Fireflies that have traveled all the way from another city. The girl must be important." Tess explained, she then turned to Ellie, "What is the deal with you? You some big-wig's daughter or something?"

"Something like that." Ellie replied. "So how long is this gonna take?"

"If everything goes as planned. We should get you to them in a few hours."

Rylan turned to Ellie, "Ellie, Since this is your first time outside the wall, once we get out there follow our lead and stick real close."

Ellie took a deep breath, "Yeah, of course."

Joel climbed up the ladder to peak outside, a couple of patrols were guarding the perimeter but since the four were going to be embracing the darkness of the night and camouflaged in the heavy rain it shouldn't be a problem. Ellie was full of excitement and surprise.

"Holy shit... I'm actually outside." She said sticking close to Rylan who took point.

Rylan led the three up into the old cargo truck acting like a bridge out of the pit. "Alright come-" The butt of a gun met Rylan's chin and he fell to the ground.

"RYLAN!" Tess shouted, Ellie sprinted to him kneeling down next to him he was out cold. She was pulled away from him by one of the soldiers.

"Don't do anything stupid." The soldier said, his partner held up Joel and Tess at gun point. The four of them were brought to their knees in a straight line. Rylan was still dazed from being hit.

"You'll scan them and I'll call em' in." The female soldier said.

"Look the other way, I'll make this worth you a while." Tess bargained.

"Shut up." The solder replied.

He took out a scanner and began scanning Tess, Joel, Rylan But before he reached Ellie She slowly brought out her switchblade.

"How long till the ETA?" The soldier said before getting stabbed in the thigh with Ellie's knife, "Arghh!" He cried and slapped her away.

Rylan yelled and tackled the soldier to the ground an began punching him in rage, not caring for the face being protected by a gas mask and metal helmet. His hard knuckle combat gloves protected him from that. Tess hot down the other soldier and Rylan finished of the other by driving his knife through his throat. Ellie was horrified by the sight of two soldier being killed, she curled into a ball up against a crate.

"Oh... oh fuck!" She cried. "I thought we were just gonna hold them up or something."

Rylan walked over and awkwardly placed his hand on her shoulder, but to his surprise he grasped it tightly. He rolled his eyes _'What am I doing?' _He thought he inspected the light bruise on her cheek, "Tch... You're a real hothead are you." She chuckled under her breath.

Ellie looked up and saw the light bruise on his chin, she reached up but he pulled away. "Are you okay?" She asked.

"Ye...Yeah I'm fine." He replied.

Tess picked up the soldier's scanner, and her face was hit with horror, "Oh, shit." She looked to Joel, "Look." She said the the scanner to him.

"Jesus Christ.. Marlene set us up? Why the hell are we smuggling an Infected girl?" Joel said.

* * *

><p>"What?!" Rylan growled stealing away the scanner, <em>'positive' <em>He looked back at Ellie, she saw the same look in his eyes the first time she met him.

"I'm not infected." She said.

"No? So was this lying?!" Rylan said tossing the scanner at her

"I can explain." Se pleaded. Rylan pulled out his magnum aimed it at her head, Joel and Tess didn't intervene.

"You better explain fast! So you tell me or I will kill you!" Rylan said cocking the hammer. Ellie pulled her sleeve back to show an aged bite mark.

"I don't care how you got infected."

"It's three weeks old!" She cried.

"Everyone turns within two days so stop bullshitting!"

"It's three weeks I swear. Why would she set you up." She pretty much begged at this point, she was afraid by the sight of his eyes, Rylan couldn't tell because of the rain but Ellie was crying. Tess walks up to Rylan and places her hand on his shoulder.

"Riley..." Tess said, that made Ellie cry harder but she did her best to hide it as she hugged her knees tightly. "This wont bring 'her' back. Don't waist it that shot."

Rylan's hand shook but un-cocked the hammer and holstered the magnum with the one shot. He turned to Tess, "Don't make me regret this..." He said. As he turned around he stopped and his eyes widened at the sight of a military vehicle armed with a mounted machinegun, "Oh shit... Guys run." He said sprinting off in the opposite direction. Joel did the same with Tess and Ellie.

The four dropped back down into the pit surrounding the city walls, Rylan refused to look at Ellie, he hated her for good this time and eventually the feeling was mutual. The four sneaked around the search party going through crevices, and old sewer systems. Ellie kept a few glances at Rylan but yet he still refused to look at her or acknowledge her, and for what? Because she's infected. She kept thinking who 'her' was, said by Tess. Joel Continued to lead all them away from the Military.

"Goddamnit, they are everywhere." Joel cursed.

There were too many close calls, almost being caught and finally they were out of there, Joel opened a grate out deeper into the ruined city. The four survivors stop to take a breath. Ellie decided to sit down.

"Alright, they're gone." Joel said catching his breath. Tess turned to Ellie

"Look - what was the plan? Lets say we deliver you to the Fireflies, what then?" She asked.

"Marlene... She said that they have the own little quarantine zone. With doctors there still trying to find a cure." Ellie explained

"Yeah we've heard that before, huh, Tess?" Joel said.

"And that... Whatever happened to me is they key to finding a vaccine."

"Bullshit." Rylan said bitterly.

"It's what she said."

"Oh. I'm sure she did."

"Hey fuck you man, I didn't ask for this."

"Me neither." Rylan said brushing past her. Joel walked up to Tess.

"Tess, what the hell are we doing here?" Joel asked.

"What if it's true?" She countered.

"I can't believe.."

"What if, Joel? I mean we've come this far, lets just finish it" But Joel pulled her in closer

"Do I need to remind you what is out there?" He asked. Tess turned to look at the kids.

"I get it..." She said sympathetically before walking ahead.


	5. Chapter 5: Shoot to Thrill

_** The Last Of Us**_

_**A/N: DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN AC/DC's SHOOT TO THRILL. ALL RIGHTS GO TO THEIR OWNERS.**_

Episode 5  
>"Shoot To Thrill"<p>

Ellie stood in awe looking up at the tall buildings of the ruined city of Boston Massachusetts, she was surprised to see how actually tall they were up close. Tess said that when the outbreaks started the military napalmed the streets causing some of the buildings to become 'unstable'. Some fell others rest against neighboring skyscrapers, which of course the four had to go through to get to the Capitol building. This was Ellie's first time outside the walls of the zone, that she could remember. She and Riley would always sneak out to explore some pre apocalypse places kids their age would go and hang out, at least she had it easy, Rylan of course was a different story. Rylan was raised on the road with his parents, Tess, and older sister. He was raised like a warrior, a hunter, something his father and sister taught him. His father was a war veteran, his sister followed in his footsteps, she helped train Rylan in jujitsu while his father taught him how to shoot. But Rylan loved his big sister, she was his best friend in the whole world and when they died, he became cold and suicidal and showed no mercy towards his enemies or infected for that matter.

"More bodies over here. Still fresh." Rylan said kneeling over fallen military personnel of the unstable skyscraper.

"Lets not stick around." Tess assured. Every step they took, the building talked to them. The unstable building rumbled throughout the deserted hallways, Ellie felt shivers down her spine. More bodies of soldiers turned up, empty shell casing covered the floors but no bodies of whatever they were shooting at. Joel came around a corner, to see a deformed person against the door.

"Goddamnit. Clicker." He said inspecting the abomination's carcass. The body of the Clicker was deformed, the infection grew over it's entire body, fungal matter glued its entire 'shell' to the door, and Joel proceeded to pull it off. Ellie was horrified by the sight of it.

"Geez... What's wrong with its face?" She asked.

"That's what years of infection'll do to you." Tess replied.

"So what are they blind?"

"Sort of, they see using sound."

"Like bats?"

"Like bats. If you hear one clicking, you gotta hide. That's how they spot you." Tess explained. Ellie encountered infected before obviously, but not clickers. Clickers were worse then runners, the fungus that cover the head acted like armor sometimes guns weren't strong enough to crack it unless you had a shotgun. The more logical way would be to take it out silently, only if you had a more durable blade other than homemade shivs Joel and Tess use, if not you'd just run and don't look back. Rylan took point the rest of the way with his suppressed silver ghost in one hand and his trusty knife in the other, Ellie still jumped at the sound the building's rumbling.

"Whole building feels like it's about to fall apart." Rylan said. The building then shook. "I had to say it..." he cursed.

"Totally cool. Everything is totally cool." Tess assured, Joel then pushed open a door which knocked over a cart falling down to the floors below making a huge echo of crashing of the impact throughout the building.

_*Click* "Roaragh!*_

"Joel!" Rylan shouted, Joel looked over to see a Clicker pounce onto him. The two crumble down onto the ground and the clicker throws it's weight on top of him trying to get a good bite at his neck. But Rylan ran over and kicked the abomination off and put two silenced shots from his gun into the head of the clicker.

Joel gasped for breath, "Thanks."

"You alright?" Ellie asked. Joel nodded,

"It's nothin'. C'mon. Let's get the hell outta here." The place was bad, very bad the building was falling apart, clickers roam the halls. The four survivors barely held their own against more clickers they've encountered. The ammo was too precious to waste, even Rylan knew not to go hand to hand with a clicker but he didn't care, Ellie saw that the boy had a death wish. She wondered why he hates her so much she tried to hate him back but she can't, no matter how hard she tried. How could she? She barely knew him.

"Well the stairway's blocked." Rylan sighed.

"Should we go back up?" Ellie asked. Tess had another idea by climbing out a broken window onto the old window maintenance lifts, and to think Ellie though Rylan had a death wish.

"Just don't look down." Tess said. Rylan followed after her.

"C'mon now." He said.

"Wha-? Are you serious?" Ellie cried.

"Do I look serious?" Rylan said staring into her eyes. He knew his eyes scared people, Ellie acknowledged and very carefully hopped onto the lift. She tip toed over to the next one that was slightly below them. "What are you waiting for?" He said. But Ellie looked back at him with worried eyes. But she took one deep breath and landed onto the lift below. Still alive. She looked up to see a devilish smirk on Rylan's face.

"Oh shit..." She whispered. Rylan leaped off the lift onto the next. The lift violently shook and the cables squeaked unstably and Ellie let out a slight squeal holding onto the railing for dear life.

"Are you fucking stupid?!" Ellie shouted, but he ignored her and joined Tess, Joel and Ellie followed after them. As soon as they re-entered the building Ellie fell to her knees feeling solid ground again. She turned to Rylan, "What happen to you?" she asked. Again he ignored her, and the four pressed on.

* * *

><p>Joel found a revolver on the way, four shots. A good weapon against clickers for head shots.<p>

"Shit! Runners.." Ellie whispered. Rylan turned to Joel and tossed him a steel pipe.

"You up for it?" he asked. Picking up a pipe for himself.

Joel scoffed, "Your crazy...But yeah." Joel then turned to the girls. "Stay here, Rylan and I will clear them out." Tess didn't like the idea but there was little choice and she nodded. As Rylan and Joel hop down to the floor roaming with a pack of runners, Rylan pulled out his sister's IPod and put in the ear buds. As he turns it on it only had 10% power left.

_"Good a time as any." _He thought. As he pulled up AC/DC's "Shoot to Thrill" and pressed play. He turned to Joel as the song began and he nodded.

_All you women who want a man of the street_  
><em>Don't know which way you wanna turn<em>  
><em>Just keep coming<em>  
><em>And put your hand out to me<em>  
><em>Cause I'm the one who's gonna make you burn<em>  
><em>I'm gonna take you down<em>  
><em>Down down down<em>  
><em>So don't you fool around<em>  
><em>I'm gonna pull it pull it<em>

"ALRIGHT YOU FUCKERS IT'S CLOBBERING TIME!" Rylan yelled at the top of his lungs. Alerting the Runners to their presence. The first runner got the taste of Rylan's Swing of the steel pipe, blood and gray matter splattered onto the wall.

_Shoot to thrill play to kill_  
><em>Too many women too many pills, yeah<em>  
><em>Shoot to thrill play to kill<em>  
><em>I got my gun at the ready gonna fire at will<em>

Rylan and Joel unleash all their fury on the runners coming across them, music still playing loud in Rylan's ears.

_I'm like evil I get under your skin_  
><em>Just like a bomb that's ready to blow<em>  
><em>Cause I'm illegal<em>  
><em>I got everything<em>  
><em>That all you women might need to know<em>  
><em>I'm gonna take you down<em>  
><em>Yeah down, down, down<em>  
><em>So don't you fool around<br>I'm gonna pull it, pull it  
>Pull the trigger<br>Shoot to thrill play to kill  
>Too many women too many pills<br>Shoot to thrill play to kill_

During the guitar solo Rylan put his hand to hand skills to good use, and Using his knife to drive it into their heads, unleashing a fury of quick jabs and strikes with a couple of round house kicks.

_I'm gonna shoot you down, yeah yeah_  
><em>I'm gonna get you down, down down down down<em>  
><em>Shoot you, shoot you, shoot you, shoot you down,<em>  
><em>Shoot you, shoot you, shoot you down<em>  
><em>I'm gonna shoot to thrill<em>  
><em>Play to kill<em>  
><em>Shoot. to. thrill!<em>

The iPod died after the song ended, Rylan looked around to see dead bodies of Runners, Joel stood their with the bloody pipe still in his hands.

"Jesus. Christ." Joel said with a surprised expression. Rylan merely chuckled and wiped off the bloodstained blade and removed his ear buds and stuff the iPod back into his pocket.

"Good while it lasted." Rylan whispered to himself. "Alright come on down."

"Who the hell is this kid?" Ellie asked Tess.

"United States Marine Corps families kid, don't mess with them." After lurking through the underground subways, Joel, Tess, Rylan, and Ellie made it outside. Finally on real solid ground and away from that death trap.

* * *

><p>The four enjoy at least a five minuet water break, after going through the tilted and unstable skyscraper. Rylan closed his eyes for a few moments while Ellie was fiddling with her switchblade.<p>

Tess turned to Joel, "You know I was thinkin'... after we get back. We can take it easy for a little while."

"you want to take it easy?" he asked in disbelief.

"Hey. You're the one always going on about layin' low."

"And You always brushed me off."

"Well I won't this time."

"I'll believe it when I see it." Joel said taking another sip of his water. Ellie looked over at Rylan who was still catching a quick 5 minuet nap. She walked over to him,

"We made it outside." She said. But no response. "Your pretty good at this stuff."

"It's called luck and it is going to run out." Rylan growled.

"Seriously what it up with you?! Why do you hate me so much? You don't even know me." Rylan shot to his feet and glared at the young redhead.

"And you don't know shit about me! But believe me I know about your kind!" Rylan shouted.

"My kind? You think I'm one of those things?"

"I don't think, you got the evidence right here." holding her arm up and dropped it.

"Well I'm here talking to you, you can't talk to them I know I trie-." She paused. "I'm still breathing, thinking...feeling."

"What makes you so damn special? Because you're not alive, not really. Those things don't think and feel, they hunt and kill, I can name plenty of good people who should be immune instead of some kid with no parents, friends or even life worth living for." Ellie's eyes stung with tears.

"Go. Fuck. Yourself!" she spat.

_*Roarahgh!*_

"Oh shit, Joel get the door double time!" Tess said, Joel rapidly pulled the chain opening the shutter door.

"Oh- They're coming!" Ellie cried.

"I know!"

"Okay, that's good, that's good, Go!" Rylan said as he, Tess and Ellie duck under into the building, and holding open the door for Joel to duck under in time to close the shutter before a pack of runners swarmed the place. Joel almost got grabbed by a runner that reached out for him as the door slammed shut.

"You got something on your shoe." Ellie said. Joel kicked off a severed arm lying across his foot. "Gross."

Rylan's words still rang in her head, _"I can name plenty of good people who should be immune instead of some kid with no parents, friends or even life worth living for." _She did have a friend, her only friend Riley. The day she got infected was a day she will never forget.

* * *

><p><em>Three weeks earlier<em>

Riley and Ellie spend their day at the abandoned mall, going through a whole bunch of fun things with some power they managed to kick on. Riding some of the rides taking photo booth pictures. Trying on Halloween masks. Even playing squirt gun fights, and Ellie proved to be a better shot than Riley.

"Oh! Shoot. Oh shoot what did I just do? Did you see those skills? Some one should revoke that dog tag." Ellie teased.

"Wow! Now you're just mean. That's it. We're going again." Riley said, but Ellie sighed.

"Riley... I would love to do this all day."

"But you gotta go back."

"I gotta go back." Ellie said. Riley nodded,

"Ok, fine. Can I at least walk you home?"

Ellie smiled, "I guess."

"Let me get my backpack." Riley said going back for her backpack, Ellie followed her.

"Hey listen... I said it like an Asshole but... I totally meant it. You should go." Ellie explained, Riley looked down but nodded. "This is something you wanted, you know forever so... Who am I to stop you?"

"The one person I can." Riley said.

"No, Please, don't go. I'll be so miserable without you." Ellie teased, Riley laughed a little. "I'll be fine."

Riley held out her squirt gun, "You should keep these. Not going to do me any good." Ellie took them and began stuffing them in her backpack, "You still lug around that Walkman?" Riley asked.

"Tch... Always."

"Let me see it." Riley said, Ellie took out the tape player and handed it to her, "What's in it?"

"That tape you gave me."

Riley giggled, "You really will be miserable without me." she teased.

"Shut up." Ellie replied zipping up her backpack.

"Leave that. Follow me." Riley said. Ellie followed close behind her. Riley hooked up the Walkman to a stereo and the music began playing. Riley giggled and hopped onto the table and began dancing.

"Really?" Ellie asked.

"C'mere. Get your ass up here." Ellie resisted but joined her and they both started dancing to the rhythm, but pretty soon she stopped.

"What is it?" Riley asked. Ellie drew closer just glaring into her eyes. "Ellie, what's wrong?"

"Don't go..." she said, Riley was shocked but she took her dog tag and threw it onto the ground. Ellie smiled and threw herself into a kiss Riley was shocked by the sudden devotion but she kissed Ellie back. The two drew apart and Ellie was embarrassed. "Sorry."

"For what?"

"So... What do we do now?"

"We'll figure it out. But I don't think Marlene's gonna go for it-"

_*ROARAHG!*_

"RILEY!" Ellie screamed.

_*BANG!*_

* * *

><p>Ellie snapped out of it, she was curled in a ball behind a display case, hearing Tess fighting off infected they encountered, Somehow they got separated from the guys going further into the old museum. Ellie suddenly heard Tess scream, it made her stomach turn but she still saw her fighting. Maybe it was nothing.<p>

"Tess!" Rylan yelled running into the room and opening fire on the runners in the room. Joel ran in from behind him and helping him clear the place out. Rylan and Joel emptied their clips clearing out the runners. "Tess you okay?"

"Just a bit winded. I'm alright." Tess assured. Joel turned to Ellie.

"How bout you kid, you okay?" he asked.

"Define okay." She replied catching her breath.

"Are you still breathing?"

"Do small panicked breaths count?"

"Yeah, They Count."

"Alright, then I'm okay." She said.

The four reach the roof of the museum, They can see the capitol building in the distance. The sun shined in the early morning. Ellie stopped to admire the sight.

"Well that, everything you hoped for?" Joel asked Ellie.

"Jury's still out. But, man... you can't deny the view." she said. Rylan scoffed and crossed his arms, he drifted off into his own thoughts. Kept asking himself why is he still letting that 'thing' live, but at least they were almost at the capitol building and getting rid of her completely.

"Hey! Pick it up." Tess shouted, Rylan snapped out of his daydream. "Look we're almost done. Stay focused."

"Yes ma'am." he mocked.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Please review.<em>**


	6. Chapter 6: Capitol

_**The Last Of Us**_

Episode 6  
>"Capitol"<p>

It was homestretch to the capitol building now, the rest of way went in complete silence. Rylan kept ahead of the rest, and Ellie still tried to start at least a more friendlier conversation, but the boy would just brush her off every time. This was going to be the last time she will see him, she wanted him to get to know her at least before judging her. Rylan hated the infected more than anybody she knew even herself, he had a death wish for reasons Ellie didn't know. Ellie tried to talk to Tess about it but she refused to, Joel knew too but yet he too refused, she was anxious to see what this kid's problem was and why he hates her but now she may never get the chance. Rylan was lost in his thoughts, remembering his late sister. He remembers his first time practicing his jujitsu forms in an open field, and there she was smiling and her blonde hair blowing in the summer breeze. She was so beautiful but then the summer sky turned dark, rain poured suddenly out of no where. Rylan looked around to see her gone _'Where did she go?! W..Where did...?' _Then it all stopped, the summer air was back again but she was still gone. Rylan can feel a presence behind him he slowly turned and was shocked to an absolute horror, There she was, her hair was bloody her face was beyond recognizable. Her screams pierced Rylan's very soul and she leaped at him taking a mouthful of flesh off of little Rylan's neck into her mouth, blood sprayed everywhere.

Rylan gasped and fell to his knees, she was gone again. He looked around to see Tess and Joel staring back at him, Ellie calmly walked over but he jerked away, "Stay the fuck away from me!" he spat. Ellie was shocked to see a single tear run down his face,

"Rylan..." She whispered. But just like that his expression went blank, like he once again flipped the switch and he pressed on. The four were met with a small river surrounding the capitol building.

"Um... just so it's out there. I cant swim." Ellie said. Tess turns to her,

"Looks like its shallow on the right side, follow me." Tess said. Ellie followed close behind her.

"I'm glad Marlene hired you guys."

"What do you mean?"

"I now you guys are getting paid for this but, I'm trying to say thanks. Even you Rylan, Thank you." Ellie said. Rylan was already at the door to the capitol building shaking of the water of his boots. _"How could she thank me? I mean I tried to kill her, I was mean to her. What does she want with me?" _He thought. But he ignored it all, she wasn't going to get into him. Joel proceeded to open the door to see bodies of who they were suppose to meet.

"No, no, no ,no!" Tess grunted as she rushed over to search them. They were all dead, every single one of them.

"What happens now?" Ellie asked. Rylan walked over to Tess who was still searching the fallen Firefly.

"What are you doing Tess?" he asked.

"Maybe they ah, maybe they left a map or something to tell us where they were going." She said in a rush with panic in her voice.

"How far are we gonna take this?" Joel asked.

"As far as it needs to go!" She argued. "Where was this lab of theirs?" Tess asked Ellie. Rylan felt there was something wrong.

"oh, she never said. She only mentioned that it was someplace out west."

"Great. Work." Rylan spat. Ellie glared at him.

"Knock it off!" Joel snapped. "Tess, what are we doing here? This is not us."

"What do you know about us?! About me?" She countered. This took Rylan by surprise.

"I know that you are smarter than this."

"Really? Guess what we are shitty people, Joel. It's been that way for a long time."

"No. We are survivors!"

"This is our chance-"

"IT IS OVER TESS!" Joel yelled, Rylan walked in between them and place his hand on Joel's shoulder. "Now we tried. Let's just go home."

"I'm not... I'm not going anywhere. This is my last stop."

Rylan turned to face Tess with a hint of worry on his face, "What?"

"Our luck had to run out sooner or later..." Tess said.

"What are you going on about-" Rylan reached for her but she pulled away.

"No, Don't! Don't Touch me." Sorrow fell upon her.

"Holy shit." Ellie said, everyone turned to her. "She's infected." Rylan turned to Tess with a look of disbelief, sorrow, and shock on his face.

"Riley..."

"Let me see it." He said softly.

"I didn't mean..."

"Show it to me!" he shouted. Tess yanked back her collar to show a nasty bite mark on her neck.

"Oh Christ.." Joel gasped, Rylan just stood there and cupped his face into his hands walking back.

"oops, right?" Tess said, She walked over to Ellie, "Give me your arm." She grabbed it and pulled back her sleeve to show that bite mark, "This was three weeks, I was bitten an hour ago and it's already worse. This is fucking real, Joel! You have got to get this girl to Tommy's. He use to run with this crew. He'll know where to go."

"No, no, no, That was your crusade. "I am not doin' that." Joel argued.

"Yes you are!" Tess moved closer to Joel with a softness in her voice, pleading. "Look, there's enough here that you have to feel some sort of obligation to me. So You get her to Tommy's and take Riley with you." Tess said. They jumped by the sounds of trucks coming into the area. Tess ran to the window.

"They're here, Riley go with them. Make sure Joel gets that girl to his brother's and take good care of her." She said, Rylan choked back the sobs. "Promise me Riley."

"But... Mom." Rylan said, Joel and Ellie were shocked beyond belief when he called Tess 'mom'. Tess smiled. she cupped her son's face in her hands.

"That was the first time you called me that. You don't hate me anymore?" her voice broke.

Rylan began to sob lightly. "No..." Tess pulled him in for a hug and kissed him on the cheek.

"My beautiful boy..." She sobbed with him. "It's okay.. I'll always be with you, now go."

"I...I." Rylan stuttered between the sobs.

"I love you too." she said. Rylan turned and speed walked out into the next room on the other side of the main hall. He fell to his knees and sobbed harder and harder. His whole world ended, his entire family was gone now, Rylan wanted to die.

* * *

><p>Joel and Ellie followed in behind him and slammed the doors behind them.<p>

"What the fuck! I cant believe we did that."

"Stop." Joel growled.

"But we just left her to die."

Rylan couldn't hold back the sobs he was in real pain, pain to much to bear. But he felt arms wrap around him, Ellie's arms. She was hugging him, he felt something he never felt before. Heard heard her sob a little with him, he heard her say, "I'm sorry..." Rylan pulled away gently this time. They jumped at the sound of gun shots.

"Lead the way Joel." Rylan said.

There were only three now. Tess was gone, and Rylan determined to keep his mother's promise, this was a first to Joel of course. He felt such sympathy for the boy, he reminded him so much of himself, he rubbed the boy's shoulder who is now under his care as the three push forward into the building swarming with Military.

They were out of the building, getting passed the soldiers using almost half of their ammo. Just when things were looking up for them however when they made it outside they ran the moment they saw the mounted machine gun truck opening fire on them. They retreated into the old subway system, the place was filled with spores, and the guys rush to put on their gas masks. But Ellie was breathing like it was clean air.

"How the hell are you breathing in this stuff?" Joel asked.

"I wasn't lying to you." Ellie replied.

Joel and Rylan managed to take out the only two guards in the area before moving on. The subway was a problem for Ellie though, the place was flooded.

"Hey I can't swim." She said. Rylan turned to her.

"We'll figure something out." He replied. Joel dived into the water and moved under the wrecked train cars to the other side. Rylan and Ellie found a shallow path to move across to where Joel was. Ellie felt the pathway was getting a little deeper she clinched to Rylan's arm. Rylan rolled his eyes, "Your fine...let go."

"No." Ellie said with iron in her voice.

"Ellie." He said, she was surprised he called her by her name. "Your. Fine."

"You called me, 'Ellie'." she smirked.

"Don't flatter yourself, 'Clicker'." he spat forcefully removing her grip.

"Tch... Whatever." she scoffed.

There were no more path after that and Rylan jumped into the water, but Ellie stood right where she was, but Joel brought over a wooden pallet.

"Ok, hop on." he said.

"Really?" She scoffed.

"Ellie..."

"Okay, Okay." She said before jumping on. Rylan and Joel led the pallet over to the other platform, where Ellie jumped up and lowered the ladder. The three leave the polluted subway drinking all the fresh air of the outside. Rylan shrugged off his jacket and folded it to tuck it neatly in his sling backpack. Took off his gloves to let his hands breath.

"Rylan... listen about Tess." She paused when he shot a glare at her, she flinched at the sight of him without his shirt on, she was embarrassed so she looked down. "I-I don't know what to say."

"Stop. Just stop." He said ringing out his shirt before putting it back on. Joel turned to Ellie,

"Here's how things are gonna play out. You don't bring up Tess. Ever. Matter of fact why don't we just keep our histories to ourselves." Joel continued, "Secondly you don't tell anyone about your condition. They'll either think you're crazy or try to kill you. And lastly you do what I say, when I say it. We Clear?"

"Sure." She said

"Repeat it." He ordered.

"What you say goes." She still kept in eye contact with Joel but can still feel the hateful glare at the side of her head. She still felt hurt by him calling her a clicker. She continued to look down at her shoes, as Joel went on about their next move.

"Now, there's a town a few miles north of here. With a fella there that owes me some favours...Good chance he could get us a car."

"Okay." She mumbled with hurt in her voice, which neither seemed to care.

"Let's get a move on." Joel ordered. The journey continues as Joel, Ellie, and Rylan traveled for 11 long hours to the next town.

* * *

><p>Rylan walked in complete silence the entire way, keeping his head straight and no emotion what so ever. He became homicidal after that, flipping that last bullet for that magnum like a coin. Ellie tried to speak to him but he constantly ignored her, Ellie felt sorry for him for losing the only family he had. She wanted him to know how something like that felt but Joel's words pretty much stuck. She did keep her histories to herself, She couldn't take it much longer.<p>

"So, what you're just going to ignore me through the entire trip?" Ellie asked, but still no response. "Look, I know you don't want to talk about it. People think we're kids, and that they should be seen and not heard, Tess was your mother and yet you never called her 'mom'. But you can't just pretend that she never mattered to you. Joel told us to keep our histories to ourselves but that doesn't mean that we can't try and understand each other. Tess told you to take care of me, so...please, help me feel taken care of." Ellie explained. Rylan didn't snap, yell, or glare at her. His breathing was even, he wasn't angry anymore. Rylan casually put the bullet back into his magnum and holstered it. He looked over to see her shivering to the cool breeze approaching, Rylan pulled out his bomber jacket and put it over her shoulders. She smiled lightly as she pulled the jacket close embracing the warmth. It was probably the best she was ever going to get.

"Keep up." He said. Ellie stuck close to Rylan the entire way. A few minuets pass by and Joel pointed of to the distance.

"There we go." He said. The three arrived at the town of Lincoln, Joel pointed to the town's water tower. Joel led the three through the woods, Ellie was in aw at the sight of the nature of the woods. Rylan took note of this, Ellie told him she never seen anything like it before or better yet walk through the woods. She finally got a chance seeing some wildlife and fireflies. Real fireflies. As they climbed over the fence Joel can see smoke in the distance, a camp fire maybe.

"That you, Bill?" Joel mumbled.

"Where do you usually meet him?" Rylan asked.

"Not the same places."

"You never been here have you?" Ellie asked. Joel sighed in defeat.

"I know this is where he lives but... no I ain't never been here, personally."

Rylan stepped forward, "And that smoke, you think that's him?"

"Shure's hell better be." Joel replied.

The place was a ghost town, untouched, although some places were ransacked probably by Bill or some scavengers. Bill was a business partner of Joel and Tess, he supplied them with pills, food, ammo but what Joel really needed at this point was a car. It wasn't a good Idea to travel the entire way on foot, ether it took too long or that it was suicide. Whatever the case Joel needed to get Ellie to his long lost brother Tommy, but more importantly he was a firefly and he'd know where to take Ellie. Ellie and Rylan scavenge a small area for supplements, food, or ammo of sorts but some places were picked clean. Ellie's attention was drawn to some garden ornaments lying around.

"Hey look. Gnomes." She chuckled.

Rylan rolled his eyes, "Yeah. Those are gnomes."

"Man, I had an art book filled with these. I always thought they were super cute. Not fairies though. They creep me out." Rylan turned twords her with one eyebrow raised.

"So good looking women with wings, and small tight dresses some how creep you out other than, small bearded guys with rosy cheeks and 'creepy smiles'?" He asked. She shrugged but smiled at him. Rylan frowned as he began to pace back and forth. "Look, The reason I never called Tess 'mom' was because she took off after I was born, abandoned me. My dad was married to someone else at the time, my sister's mother. The woman I thought was my mother until Tess found us again a few days before my family's dea.." His voice broke right there he covered his mouth.

"Rylan..." Ellie said sympathetically.

"So T-" He paused, "Mom took care of me since then." He finished. Ellie reached for his hand but he pulled away. "Stop. I spent my entire life hating the infected, you may don't look like them but you are still infected and nothing can change that, I'll keep my promise to my mother but we cant be friends. Your just cargo."

Ellie scoffed and was hurt by that, she shook her head and threw off Rylan's jacket tossing it to dirt near Rylan's feet. "You know what. Forget it, I don't need you to take care of me! I can take care of myself." Ellie said before storming off, crying. Rylan stood there for a second before glancing to the gnomes staring back at him. In a fit of anger he began smashing them underfoot, not even caring what they were made of. After the damage was done he was confused on what just came over him, _"I don't feel guilty. I don't. I can't."_

* * *

><p><strong><em>Who knew that Tess was Rylan's biological mother? And why doesn't Rylan just accept Ellie for what she is? If he doesn't feel guilty then why did he lash out? Who did you dress up for Halloween? Review your thoughts and enjoy some candy! Happy Halloween from your writers Exangellion and Me Revanite201, Thank you guys so much for taking the time to read our story and keeping the Last of Us universe alive, to the 418 people, the followers this was for you guys Thank you all! goodnight people. See you Wednesday.<em>**


	7. Chapter 7: Debtor

**_The Last Of Us_**

Episode 7  
>"Debtor"<p>

Ellie just broke down, as she found a corner she just couldn't hold back being hurt by Rylan's words, even saying his name or even hearing about it made the hot tears form in her eyes and fall down her dirt rubbed face. She never felt this hurt before, normally she knew how to deal with assholes like Rylan but he hit her in ways she never thought was possible for a girl like her. She tried to hate him back but she couldn't no matter how hard she tried, she cared. Ellie began wiping her face off as soon as her and Rylan's name's were being called, she kept her face down most of the walk down the streets of the abandoned ghost town of Lincoln. Rylan stayed silent the entire time which was no surprise by him, Joel didn't like how things were looking between the kids but he didn't want to get in the middle but Ellie just decided to make a little small talk with Joel, like how evacuating the town must have been hard on people, a certain video game she been wanting to play and other obvious things she could talk about trying to get a certain boy off of her mind.

"This place is very quaint." Ellie said. Joel scoffed by Ellie's surprisingly abnormal vocabulary.

"Quaint?" Joel replied raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I don't know... how would you describe it?"

"Empty."

"Yeah. That would be another way." She nodded.

Ellie and Joel searched that old record store, Rylan sat down on an old bench just across the street watching Ellie through the window. She was going through the old selection of untouched music, cracking a smile at the corner of her mouth from time to time at some titles she heard about. The only kind of music Rylan was able to listen to was from his sister's old I Pod, which he safely kept In zipped plastic bag to keep it from getting wet when they were swimming in the subway. Rylan was tired, he couldn't even remember the last time he slept, or shaven as he felt a light peach fuzz across his face. Rylan stared down at the ground letting his slicked back hair fall right down over his face, his mind clouded with unwanted mixed emotions.

"Rylan!" Joel's voice said in a quiet shout. He looked up and brushed away strands of his ashy blonde hair from his eyes this time not combing his hair back he let it hang freely down going past his ears, he got up and went with Ellie and Joel pressing on through the town. Joel led them into the alley, it was all fine until a clicker stumbled in at the other end then suddenly... Boom. All three of them jumped at the sound of a bomb going off and the Clicker was...everywhere.

"Jesus!" Joel gasped.

"Whoa Nelly! Wha-? What the hell was that?" Ellie stammered from behind Joel.

"That... would be one of Bill's traps."

"A bit paranoid, much?" Rylan asked.

"Now that's putting it lightly."

"What's the big deal with this guy?" Ellie asked.

"Well, he helped us smuggle stuff into the city. He's... He knows how to find things." Joel explained pulling some arrows out of a dead runner.

"Well let's hope that we don't blow up trying to find him." Rylan smirked at Ellie's joke but kept a stoic expression.

"Just watch your step." Rylan said. There was no way around but up through the rooftops, Joel came across a bow which he gave to Rylan since he was the only one who knew how to use it, or not.

"Let me use that, I'm a pretty good shot with that thing." Ellie said.

"How about you leave this kind of stuff to us." Joel stepped in before Rylan told her off, he merely stood back and pulled the bow string sensing it's mint condition.

"Well, we all could be armed. Cover each other." She whined. Rylan grinned in victory.

"I don't think so." Joel said climbing up onto the roof. Ellie's grumpy expression faded, as she saw Rylan.

"Well what do you know, he can smile. Surprised he actually has teeth." She breathed. Rylan turned into a glare,

"Very funny." He scoffed. Rylan got to use the bow a couple of times to nail a couple of infected silently from a distance, although arrows weren't really durable that much. Joel started to give a little warning about Bill, Rylan didn't know much about him other than pretty nuts but damn good when it comes to surviving. But then again both genius and madness are two sides of the same coin, the coin being Bill. But Joel didn't describe Bill as a total psycho but "Ain't the most stable of individuals." as Joel simply put it and doesn't take too kindly to strangers.

"Bill's a good guy, he just definitely needs some warning up to you two that's all." Joel said. Ellie and Rylan acknowledged in union as they dropped off the roof back down to the ground. "Alright you two c'mon." Joel muttered as he opened the door to an old warehouse, as soon as it was opened Joel head a loud clanging sound and felt something tighten around his leg

"Oh Shit!" Joel shouted as he was hoisted up and left suspended in the air.

"Joel!" The kids cried at the same time, running to him. Ellie stopped Joel from swinging, "I got you!" Se said.

"Goddamnit Bill!" Joel growled.

"What just happened!?" Rylan asked.

"It's another one of Bill's stupid traps!" Joel paused for a minuet catching his breath, "Ok that fridge looks like that's a counterweight." Rylan and Ellie sprinted towards it and Rylan boosted her up, Ellie drew her knife and began to cut away at the rope. "Cut that rope and it'll bring me down."

"Already on it!" Rylan snapped.

_*Roagah!*_

"Rylan?" Ellie cried. Rylan looked off to the distance to see a couple of packs of infected coming towards them.

"Oh shit," Rylan breathed. "Keep cutting!" He yelled to Ellie, who was frozen at the sight of infected, all lot of them. "Joel!" Rylan shouted.

"I see them!" Joel replied pulling out his revolver, Rylan did the same drawing his Silver Ghost and the two began to open fire on the abominations. Shots rang out, shell casings hit the floor the sweet smell of gunpowder entered the nostrils of Rylan's nose followed by the stench of blood giving Rylan the 'onion' effect as tears threaten to break free, he needed to keep Joel and Ellie alive by staying alive to help them.

"Ellie!" Rylan shouted.

"I'm going as fast as I can!" She argued. The fridge suddenly landed on it's side throwing Ellie off it and toppling onto Rylan and hit the ground at the same time. "Fuck!" She grunted. As she shook from her daze her face was close to Rylan's, her hand's on his chest, they stared into each other's eyes before realizing what's happening.

"Oh shit!" Rylan growled, as he rolled them both over to get a clear shot at two infected. Ellie's arms were wrapped around his neck as he lied onto of her killing the infected. He got up pulling her up with him, "This is taking too long!" he mumbled as he unsheathed his knife and with one slash at the rope caused Joel to fall to the ground. He turned to Ellie and saw an infected ready to lunge at her but he moved quick and pulled her close and into a roundhouse kick to the chest of the runner causing it to fly back tumbling over. Rylan's arm was around Ellie's waist from saving her from being the runner's next meal,

"Oh my god... There are too many of them!" Ellie breathed still clinging to her savior. The two turned to see a bulkier man helping Joel to his feet and they all followed him out the shutter door which slammed down behind them. Rylan held Ellie's hand the entire way, after running through a maze of stacked cars, infected crawling out from everywhere. They all ran into the old laundry building where they managed to take a couple of breaths, Ellie felt the light squeeze from Rylan's hand and she interlocked their fingers.

"Don't slow down this place ain't secure." The masked man breathed. Rylan let go of Ellie's hand to reload his silver ghost and joined Joel and the masked man in shooting down the invading infected. Rylan suddenly ran out of ammo, and a runner grabbed a hold of him before he was able to react and was pinned against a washer. Ellie ran over with her switch blade in hand and stabbed the back of the runner and pulled it away.

"Get away from him!" Ellie growled. Rylan finished it off with a pipe to the head of the runner, he then subconsciously grabbed her hand and they followed the masked man out of the laundry mat and into another building where he locked the door. "Man... that was close." She panted beside Rylan. "Uh... thanks for the heroics and all." She said to the masked man, who pulled it off to take a deep breath of fresh air. He had longish brown hair and scraggily facial hair, Ellie offered to shake his hand, but he grabbed it and pulled out a pair of handcuffs and cuffed her to a pipe on the wall. "Hey what are you-?! Joel?! Rylan?!"

"Bill!" Joel snapped as Rylan ran at him gripping his arm but Bill punched him away and Rylan fell to the ground. Bill pulled out his gun and pointed it at Joel,

"Turn around and get on your knees!" He said,

"Just calm down a second." Joel pleaded.

"Turn around and get on your knees!" Bill grabbed Joel and forced him down. "Got any bites? Any thing sprouting?"

"No, goddamnit I'm clean!" Joel spat. Ellie managed to pull off the pipe out of the wall and smack Bill's arm with it.

"Ow! Son-Of-A-Bitch!" Bill cried, Rylan ran over and pulled the pipe away before tossing it to the ground, holding Ellie's wrist.

"Stop!" Rylan whispered. Joel began glaring at Bill

"You done?" Joel asked.

"AM I done..? You come into my house you set off all my traps, you damn near break my shootin' arm. Who the fuck is this punk and what's she..." Bill trailed off when he saw a clear look at Rylan's face, "Ain't that Tess' kid?"

"We are none of your goddamn business, and we're here because you owe Joel some favours. And you can start by taking these off." Ellie argued waving the cuffs around, as Rylan held her back.

"I owe Joel some favours, is this some kind of joke?"

"I'll cut to the chase. I need a car." Joel said walking up to Bill who finally calmed down.

"Well it is a joke, Joel needs a car. Well if I had one that works which I sure as hell don't, what makes you think that I'd just give it to you?" Bill said bitterly, "Yeah sure Joel, go ahead, take my car. Take all my food too."

"By the looks of it, you could lose some of that food." Ellie added.

"Ellie! Not helping!" Rylan hissed. Her eyes widened at him saying her name again. Bill pulled his machete on her,

"Look here you little shit-"

"No fuck you, you handcuffed me!" He jerked forward but Rylan pulled Ellie behind him, Ellie was panting gripping Rylan's arm with both her hands.

"I need the both of you to shut up!" Joel growled as he continued their conversation, Ellie was still glaring daggers at the stubborn Bill.

"But after this, I owe you nothin'." Bill said slamming the cuff keys down on the table, Joel tossed them to Rylan. "They datin'?" he suddenly asked.

Rylan turned and glared at him, "The fuck you say?!" Bill looked down to see the two were gripping each other's hands, Ellie's face shot up bright red, Rylan ripped his away, taking a few steps back.

"Hey you gotta un-cuff me!" She said, Rylan walked back over and unlocked the cuffs and tossed them aside.

"This whole town's booby trapped, best stay right on my ass." As he walled passed Ellie sighed.

"Can't miss it." She said, Rylan cleared his throat to hide the chuckle, he leaned in.

"Good one." He said and followed Bill, Ellie giggled

"Knock it off," Joel growled. Rylan was looking into a mirror combing back his hair, Ellie crossed her arms as she watched him and smiled.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Oh man how about that? Will Rylan and Ellie finally become friends? Find out next time and don't forget to hit that review button LET me know how it's going!<strong>_


	8. Chapter 8: Education

_**Last Of US**_

Episode 8  
>"Education"<p>

Bill allowed the three to gather whatever supplies they needed around the old diner for their trip to gather whatever they can for a car that'll run. Ellie and Rylan were in the back room gathering, rags, broken scissors, and other things to craft for weapons against the infected, the teens actually started to have a decent conversation here and there, instead at each other's throats.

"He's got a fucking stick up his ass." Ellie whispered. Still raw about that little dispute with Bill,

"And you almost went to the lengths of pulling it out and beat him to death with it." Ellie giggled at that, Rylan Quirked an eyebrow, "No pun intended either," Ellie then laughed out loud, she did have a thing for puns and Rylan smirked a little. The two joined Joel and Bill back in the bar area, Ellie's eyes fell onto the chess board.

"You know how too play this?" She asked.

"Yeah, pretty badly though."

"I always wanted to learn." She sighed, her hand was drawing to one of the pieces.

"Hey Bobby Fisher! Don't touch anything on that board!" Bill exclaimed.

Ellie glared at the guy, "Bobby what?"

"Just let it go." Joel whispered.

All four began cutting through the living area above the bar, the roof tops were eroded to hell, and fresh air poured in. Bill took point leading them towards the church that can be seen in the distance, Ellie stuck close to Rylan more than Joel. She began to like him again but she doesn't know if he felt the same way at all.

"So what kind of trouble are you in? Where the hell's Tess?" Bill asked. Rylan clinched his fists tightly, Joel looked back to see the painful expression on the boy's face and turned to Bill,

"It's a job. A simple drop off." Joel replied.

"What are you delivering? That little brat?"

"Ha-ha, fuck you too." Ellie spat. But Bill only laughed, and hopped through a window.

Bill turned to Joel, "Alright, first we go to my other safe house, it's more of an armoury."

"Wait I thought we were gonna fix up a car?" Ellie said,

"We? You know how to fix a-"

"Why don't you just shut up!" Rylan defended. Ellie smiled, then Bill went on about their plan,

"Like I said, the parts are on the other side of town. Now, that side I don't ever go to cause it's filled with infected. So, we're gonna need more guns." Joel was startled by sounds of infected but Bill took care of it, "So you didn't answer my question about Tess. I mean I thought the three of you were ere inseparable."

Rylan huffed and curled his hand into a ball again, but Ellie put her hand over it. Rylan didn't react, yet it calmed him down a little.

"She's busy." Joel said. As they went outside Ellie can see the entire parking lot was filled with cars, she quirked an eyebrow,

"Why can't we just fix one of these cars?" She asked.

"Oh my god, you're a genius why on earth hadn't I thought about fixin' one of these cars?"

"Okay... don't be a dick."

Rylan pulled her close, "Tire's are rotted and their batteries are dead. The only way we can get a working battery is from a military truck," Rylan turned to Bill, "That's where we goin' right?"

_*Roagarah!*_

"Goddamnit." Joel growled,

"Infected!" Ellie cried. Rylan, Joel, and Bill pulled out their guns and opened fire on the runners and clickers coming at them. Ellie hid behind Rylan, brandishing her switchblade. Rylan got a couple of headshots, Bill and Joel decided to go close quarters. Rylan led Ellie away from the pack of infected by taking her hand. After clearing the area, Bill led them through what was left of the death trap until they found the cellar door to the basement of the church. Thankfully Bill lit a lamp illuminating the room stocked with random items,

"Let's gear up." Bill said. "And you two don't touch anything." He said pointing to the teens. Ellie headed towards the weapons, but Joel stopped her, "Uh-uh." She frowned.

"What? I need a gun."

"No you don't."

"Joel. I can handle myself."

"No. Just... Stay with Rylan."

She scoffed, "Fine. I'll wait around for you three to get me killed."

Rylan shot a look towards her, "Hey don't bring me into this!" She ignored him, Joel went with Bill to start loading up on weapons and ammo, Rylan can hear the distant conversations the two were having.

"This goes on record as the worst fucking job you've ever taken." Bill said pulling a shotgun out of his footlocker checking it's condition, "How the hell is Tess okay with this suicide mission?"

"It's actually her Idea." Joel replied.

"Really? And sending her kid along with ya? Well, then the broad's not as smart as I thought she was. But... Fuck her." Bill pulled out a bucket full of shells and grabs a second shotgun and begins loading them, "Seriously, you gotta take that girl back to where ya found her."

"Bill I can't Just take her back."

"Then send her packing let her find her own way. You know let me tall you a story. Once upon a time I had someone I cared about..." He paused. "A partner, someone I had to look after. In this world that shit's good for one thing... Gettin' ya killed. So I wisened the fuck up. And I realize that it's gotta be just me." As they argued on that, Ellie was snooping around Bill's things

"What are you doing?" Rylan asked.

"Seeing if there's anything worth taking." She replied.

"I wouldn't, that Bill is already looking like he's gonna pop a gasket."

"Well I don't answer to you guys."

"You guys? I didn't say a damn word." Rylan pointed out.

"But you would." She countered, still looking through stacks of stuff.

Rylan rolled his eyes, "Only when you're about to do something stupid." She stopped, and glared at him,

"That's my business. You two think that I can't take care myself but you're wrong. I spent my time with Marlene before you guys, I managed to learn a thing or two, so stop treating me like a damn child!" She spat and turned towards the pile,

"HEY!" Bill shouted. "What did I say to you when we came down the steps? What did I say?"

"I was just fixing your stupid pile!" She shot back.

"Don't. Touch!" Bill growled only to be given the finger by Ellie. Rylan sighed,

"Look, I know how you feel. Being treated like a child, My mom would shove me away from danger all the time. I had to show her I was capable. You just have to show Joel, he may change his mind or maybe not you just have to let him now that you are capable." Rylan said catching her full attention, "I knew you are capable from the moment I met you, after all I put you through what I said to you. I hurt you both physically and mentally, I can see it in your eyes since Boston. I don't expect your forgiveness but despite all that, you kept your head up and you toughed through it. You saved both our asses, more times than I could count. You're not a child Ellie, your a survivor."

Ellie smiled and leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, "That was for saving me, and... I do forgive you Riley."

Rylan remembered what he said about what would happen if she called him 'Riley' but he just smirked, "Ok then... Fresh start?"

Ellie shrugged, "Got no problem with that." She grinned.

"Hey kid!" Bill shouted, specifically talking to Rylan. "C'mere a sec."

Rylan looked back at Ellie and patted her shoulder, he walked up to the two adults, "What's up?"

"I got somethin' I gotta show you two. A new toy from the toy box." Bill showed them a set of nail bombs and how to make them. Happy with the bombs and shotguns the plan was simple enough. Clear the school and take the battery from the truck crashed into the side of the school, just sitting there waiting to be picked up.

* * *

><p>"Kid I swear to god if you took anything-" Bill said before being cut off,<p>

"Hey, man. I don't need any of your shit. Trust me."

"Rylan you were keeping an eye on her right?" Joel asked.

"Like a hawk." He said winking at the girl. She smiled and her cheeks turned a little pink. They all came up inside the church, more of Bills junk everywhere. Rylan walked by a statue of Jesus Christ,

"Yo, JC, you take any requests?" He asked before joining the others out side out the window.

"Ready?" Bill asked.

"I guess we'll find out." Joel replied. They pushed through the graveyard sneaking by the clickers, most of it wasn't easy after trying to save all the ammo for the hoard in front of the school where the battery is. Bill can see the truck sticking out of the side of the school and pointed it out to all the others. Rylan, Bill, and Joel went with stealth tactics first before unleashing their guns on the rest.

_*Bang!*_

The final runner fell dead from a shotgun blast to the head, blood and gray matter sprayed from the back of the skull.

"Well that was easier than I thought it'd be. They must be holed up somewhere else." Bill said.

"Well, let's not test our luck. How do we get inside?" Joel asked.

Ellie looked up on top of the school bus, "Hey someone left a ladder on the bus. Here, get me up there and I'll drop it t you." Rylan walked over and boosted her up. The battery from the truck was there for the taking,

_*Roaghah!*_

"Oh fuck, They're piling on this fence over here. It's not gonna hold!" Ellie cried. Bill and Joel pried a window open and they all began fitting through it, Joel was the last one in and had a damn near close call from a clicker pouncing on his back which luckily Rylan managed to shoot off. Ellie slammed the window shut,

"That's not gonna hold!" Rylan shouted. Joel and Ellie proceeded to barricade the door while Bill tried to jimmy the truck's hood open.

"It's empty!" Bill said.

"What do you mean it's fucking empty?!" Rylan snapped taking Joel's place holding the barricade back.

"Bill where to?" Joel asked.

"Uh.."

"Guys!" Ellie gasped.

"Bill where?!"

"Anywhere but here!" They all ran for the door on the other end of the shop, Ellie pulled Rylan with her as they bolted. The two followed the adults through the dark dingy school hallways.

"Let's um... We'll sneak out the back." Bill whispered.

"Not this way, anyway." Rylan hissed as he spotted three runners. They all ducked behind some desks,

"How do we get passed 'em?" Rylan watched as they kept rather close together,

"I got a plan." Rylan said before asking Joel for some Molotov's, Rylan leaned back and threw it into the middle of the runners setting them all a blaze. Bill was impressed by his quick thinking, they made it to the gym, just when they thought it was safe enough. Loud banging sounds erupted from doors on the other side of the gym the flimsy doors were burst open.

"What the fuck is that?" Ellie exclaimed, as a hulking infected limped out, growling and snarling sounds echoing through out the gymnasium. Rylan froze,

"Rylan! Rylan Move!" but he couldn't, no matter how many times Joel shouted at him the sight of the abomination froze Rylan in complete shock. Bill and Joel tried to fend the beast off.

"Rylan I'm running low!" Joel ran to him, "Rylan I know what these thing did to Jessica! But unless you help we're all dead!" But Rylan didn't even move, it came closer and closer and he closed his eyes.

_"Jess." _He though, before he knew it. Ellie screamed his name that set him off as he jerked his eyes open and sprinted forward kicking the creature back with a roundhouse kick. But it grabbed a hold of him and slammed him against the wall. His vision was blurred and his ears were ringing. Suddenly things were quiet and he can feel warm hands clutching the sides of his head and quiet pants against his neck,

"Riley? Riley open your eyes!" He opened his eyes to meet Ellie's natural emerald green eyes with fresh tears glistening in them, before he said anything she slapped him, "Fuck you! You almost left me! Damn you..." She then fell on his chest sobbing silently.

Rylan was shocked and surprised, he then subconsciously hugged her close, "I'm sorry..." He said.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Well that worked out well between the two now that they are friends but can they be more? Find out next week on the Last Of Us! Don't forget to review<em>**


	9. Chapter 9: Pittsburgh

_**Last Of US**_

Episode 9  
>"Pittsburgh"<p>

Rylan never saw Ellie this upset before, she was crying her eyes out at the sight of his coming doom at the hands of a Bloater which they called it. The last time Rylan saw one of those things was a time he wants to forget, Rylan didn't want to see her crying anymore not because of him, he cupped her face in his hands and tried to calm her down.

"No more crying Ellie, not because of me. A fresh start remember?" Rylan said, she sniffed and eventually nodded. "You're a survivor, you're strong..." he tucked strands of hair behind her ear and wiped away the tears. Ellie calmed down after that, she let her emotions just spill out over a boy of all sorts. She didn't even care for them except for Rylan who she keeps calling him Riley now which hurts her but being near him made up for that, his strength, his courage, and keeping his promise to keep her safe and she felt just that, _Safe. _Their faces were inches apart, she closed her eyes and she closed the gap but Rylan pulled away, Rylan hopped to his feet,

"You okay, kid?" Joel asked breaking the awkward moment. Rylan only nodded, Ellie got up as well wiping her face. She started to mentally slap herself she almost kissed him,

"Geez... What's up with that big guy?" Ellie spoke.

"He's been infected for a long time, We call them _Bloaters._" Rylan said clinching his fists at that name.

"Bloater... Okay, Got it." She acknowledged.

"I hate to interrupt your little biology lesion but can we get the fuck outta here? Please?" Bill growled. They all boosted each other up onto the bleachers and out of the smashed window of the gym. They ended up being chased down the spill way and over the fence into a neighborhood.

"Inside the house. Now!" Bill ordered, they all ran through the sliding glass door and Bill closed it from behind.

"So that worked out well." Ellie then saw the frustrations building up in Joel's face, "I'll go check this side of the house." She walked off towards the kitchen, Joel turned to Rylan,

"Go with her." Rylan didn't argue and joined her leaving the two adults alone. "Bill?"

"Somebody had the same Idea. They stole my shit." Bill said.

"Well then what the hell is plan B?"

"You ought to be thankful you're still drawing breath. That was plan A,B,C all the way to fuckin' Z. And further more, tell Tess that she can take this job-"

"Don't you bring Tess into this! This has nothin to do-" Bill's gaze then fell upon a body swinging from the ceiling. "Oh Jesus.." Joel muttered at the sight, Bill had a shocked expression on his features, "What? You know this guy or something?"

"Frank..." Bill said.

"Who the hell's Frank?" Joel scoffed rather coldly.

"He was my partner..." Bill glared. He proceeded to cut him down, the body had bites and he could hear hurt in Bill's breaths. Frank didn't want to turn so he hanged himself,

"Well fuck him..." Bill spat.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Ellie and Rylan were gathering anything that would be of use. Rylan began groaning at the pain in his side,

"Riley?" Ellie asked. She walked up to him and checked the place he was grabbing there was a deep laceration on his on the side of his abdomen, blood clogged up from the adrenaline which started to wear off enough for him to feel the pain. "We need to fix that, take your jacket and your shirt off..." She said taking off her back pack to search for a suture kit.

Rylan hesitated but did as she asked, slipping off his sling back pack and taking off his jacket and unbuckling his underarm holster before taking off his shirt. Ellie kept glancing on how physically fit Rylan was, he was skinny from the lack of food they have been getting, but definitely had a decent muscle tone. Her eyes then caught a small burn mark on his left shoulder blade a letter _D _outlined in a small tribal like decal tattoo.

"Nice tattoo.." She said.

Rylan smirked as he turned around to face her, "It's a _Brand..._" He corrected. Ellie was shocked at that,

"For what?" She asked tending to the wound in Rylan's side.

Rylan resisted to answer but gave her the short version, "My mom and I got captured and they branded us, forced us to work. We escaped and I decided to get it inked to make it less _ugly._" Ellie poured some alcohol on her hands and on Rylan's wound and began sewing the wound shut, her touch was precise like a pro. "You're are good at this." Grunting at the stinging pain of the needle piercing the outlined broken skin.

"Can't afford not to be." She said looking up at him, then down at his necklace that had two rings on them, "Your parent's?" She asked.

"My dad's and step Mom's Claddagh Rings."

"I thought they were wedding rings."

"They are, wedding rings, engagement rings, and going steady rings all in one. It's an Irish culture thing..."

"Oh.." She then began wrapping the wound in a fresh bandage. Her gaze then traveled up to Rylan's eyes, "Riley..." She closed in closer then before at the gym she managed to graze his lips before reacting and pulled away again,

"Ellie... We can't." he said, she felt hurt by that. "It's not because of your condition, I accepted that it's a part of you now. It's just... we agreed to start over, would it be wise to jump the gun now?" Ellie sighed in defeat and lowered her head but she gasped a little when Rylan lifted it up to face her, "One step at a time..." He added before putting on his shirt and underarm holster containing his silver ghost. He folded his bomber jacket and tucked It into his sling back pack. and put it over his shoulder.

Ellie sighed and put back on her back pack, she then opened another door she gasped at the sight of a truck sitting in the garage. "Holy shit." She ran through and Rylan heard a truck door open and an engine turning over. Rylan ran inside, and was surprised to find the truck along with Bill and Joel, "Look what I found." She smiled. "It's got some juice in it."

Bill walked up to the hood that was popped open, "That's my battery." he said. "That fucking asshole." He slammed the hood down shut, "Get out, Get out." Bill repeated.

"Okay geez." Ellie scoffed. Bill entered the truck and tried to turn over the engine to no avail.

"The battery's drained, but the cells are alive."

"Meaning?" Joel asked.

"Meaning we push it, get it started and the alternator will recharge the battery."

Joel scoffed, "That your guess?"

"Look you wanted a "plan B" This is as good as it gets."

Rylan looked down at Ellie, "Nice find." He smiled, she smiled back at him, and subconsciously gripped his hand. Rylan then turned to Joel, "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking you drive and we push." he replied.

"Shotgun." Rylan said. Ellie was hyped that she will be the one to drive,

"Good." Joel said walking back.

"No, shotgun." Rylan said pointing to a 12 gauge sitting in a duffle. Joel smirked and handed it to him, Rylan loaded a shell in the barrel, "Good, now... I call shotgun." Ellie giggled and Rylan got into the passenger seat, Ellie hopped in the driver's side and she gripped the steering wheel tightly, "Are you gonna be ok?" Rylan asked,

"Y-Yeah. Just make sure nothing sneaks up on me." Rylan nods and rolls down his window in case he needs to shoot. Joel walks up to Ellie's side,

"You gonna be okay with this?" He asked.

"Yeah. Not a problem."

"You're doin' a good job... I figured you should know that."

"I won't let you down with this." Ellie assured.

As soon as they were ready, Bill opened the garage door.

"Alright, put 'er in first." Bill asked.

"Already did it." Ellie replied.

Bill ran to the back with Joel ready to push, "Just keep your foot on the clutch and when we get to roll-"

"I know how to pop a clutch!" She shouted. Rylan smirked beside her holding the shotgun at the ready.

"How the hell do- Y'know what, I don't care just don't fuck it up!"

The first attempt failed obviously and Joel managed to shut Bill up from his cursing. Rylan encouraged her to try again as they were coming down a steep hill, "Riley on your left!" Ellie cried, A Runner ran up to the passenger window Rylan fired the shotgun blowing the runner's head clean off. Rylan then leaned out the window providing cover for Joel and Bill who were still pushing the truck. As they hit the hill, Rylan told her to gun it. The truck then kicked on, and Joel and Bill bolted for the flat bed,

"Floor it!" Rylan shouted as soon as the adults hopped in, the truck almost got surrounded by the hoard. Once at a safe distance Ellie began driving at a slow down to a nice calm cruise. All were enjoying the victory and rest, Bill signaled for her to stop, and he climbed out of the flat bed.

"Just keep her running, alright?" Joel said, Ellie gave him the thumbs up. Joel hopped down from the flat bed, "You gotta admit, she did hold her own back there."

Bill chuckled, "You ain't gonna make it. Oh, oh..." Bill opened his pack and tossed Joel a hose. "You'd be amazed at how many cars still got gas in 'em."

"Appreciate it... Look about your buddy back there, uh... That's a tough deal."

"We square?" Bill asked.

"Were square."

"Then get the fuck out of my town." Bill growled as he walked away.

Rylan sunk into his seat and took a huge sigh of relief a full chance for some much needed rest, he cant even remember the last time he slept. Thunder rumbled In the distance, it was going to rain soon. Joel took over sometime during the journey and Ellie and Rylan were together in the back seat, Rylan yawned as he tried to get some more sleep. Ellie was lying across his lap reading a comic,

"Oh man." She exclaimed.

"What ever happened to sleeping?" Joel asked.

"Okay, I know id doesn't look like it, but this here is not a bad read. Only one problem, right there "To Be Continued!". I hate cliffhangers." She said showing Joel and Rylan who was rudely woken u from a peaceful slumber.

"Where did you get that?" Rylan asked.

"Uhh, back at Bill's. I mean all this stuff was just lying there."

Joel sighed, "What else did you get?"

"Well," She said going through her backpack, "Here, This make you all nostalgic?" She asked handing him a tape,

"Y'know that is actually before my time. That is a winner though." He said putting in the tape and light music played, Rylan got an idea and he pulled out his I pod and hooked it into the radio, and he smirked at the sight that it was charging.

"Well better than nothing. But I'm sure 'your friend' will be missing this tonight." Rylan's eyes widened at what she looking at, "Light on the reading but it has some interesting photos."

"You got to be kidding me..." Rylan pinched the bridge of his nose tightening his eyes shut.

"Ellie that ain't for kids!" Joel said. Ellie unfolded a longer page,

"Whoa, How... how the hell would he even walk around with that thing?" Flashing the page near Rylan's face,

"Ellie I swear to god-"

"Yeah, get rid of that!" Joel agreed.

"Hold your horses. I wanna see what all the fuss is about... Oh... why are all these stuck together?" Joel and Rylan froze, didn't move a single muscle, eyes bulging out of their skulls.

Ellie only chuckled, "I'm just fucking with you two." She rolled down her window and tossed the gay man's magazine out the window, "Bye-bye, dude." Rylan reached over to the dashboard and turned the music up louder, and sunk back into his seat. Ellie scooted closer to her protector, and new friend, "You know, this ain't that bad,"

"Why don't you try and get some sleep." Rylan said, taking off his gloves.

"Pft - I'm not eve tired." She looked down at his hand and took it into her own, she scooted much closer and rested her head on his shoulder and began drifting off into a much wanted slumber. As the journey continued, Rylan was listening to his fully charged I pod. Ellie was lying down across his lap using Rylan's jacket as a blanket, Rylan then began to wonder if they were moving their relationship too fast. They only just became friends, and after all he did to her she began holding his hand and tried to kiss him twice already. It was obvious to him that she cared about him, and it took time to realize that he cares about her too but he wasn't willing to go any further, at least not yet.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no..." Joel muttered, Rylan looked out to see the rest of the highway was blocked and the only routes were back or into the city. Ellie stirred awake, she realized the situation.

She let out a big yawn, "Now what?" She asked. Joel thought about it for a moment,

"Screw it..." He muttered and took the road down into the city. Ellie shifted into the front seat with Joel, Rylan was cleaning his Silver Ghost and started putting it back together. The truck suddenly stopped to a halt,

"Easy..." Rylan exclaimed. Joel and Ellie then gasped at a man in the middle of the street, yelling for help and covered in blood.

"Are we gonna help him?" Ellie asked.

"Put your seatbelt on Ellie." Joel ordered putting on his seatbelt. She did as he asked and slipped it on,

"What... What about the guy?"

Rylan slipped on his gloves, "He ain't even hurt..." He muttered. Joel stepped on the gas the injured man then pulled out a gun and started firing, more men came from hiding and started bolting toward the truck. Men threw things at the truck busted out their windows, Ellie saw a bus coming towards them.

"Oh not good!" She cried as the whole car pivoted, the sound of steal crashing into steal jarred their senses. Then a final crash sent Rylan's body flying through the windshield and lied limp on the hood covered in blood. Ellie's eyes widened, she couldn't move of seeing the state Rylan was in.

"R..Riley?" She muttered, tears streamed down her face. The passenger door opened and a man began pulling her out, "Let, go of me you chickenshit!" She kicked and screamed as she struggled to escape the man's grasp, Joel tried to gab her leg but he too was pulled out by another guy. "RYLAN!" She cried, but Rylan did not move an inch just lied there, looking lifeless.

Joel struggles as the hunter, tried to kill him, slamming his head into an old cooler of a rest stop, shattering the glass and pressed his face down onto the razor sharp piece still sticking out from the door. Joel shoved the guy away and countered him causing the guy to trip and his throat slid across the glass. Joel glances over to see Ellie being abused by the other hunter, Joel ran over and kicked the guy off her and killed him. Ellie coughed and gasped,

"Motherfucker! What's wrong with these guys?!" She growled. Then she remembered, Rylan. She ran over to the hood of the crashed truck where Rylan's body lied she tried to wake him, tears going down her face again.

"No.. No, No not again!" She cried. Joel tried to lift him up but were met with gun fire, he hated to leave the boy there but he grabbed their packs and grabbed the girl,

"I'm sorry Ellie..." He pulled her with him bolting towards a shutter door that was open,

"No! NO! Rylan! RILEY!" She screamed, struggling out Joel's grasp. But Joel slammed the shutter door shut leaving Rylan's body behind.

* * *

><p>A hunter was going through Riley's things and took his revolver and Silver Ghost, he then saw a glimpse of a set of rings around his neck, the guy smirked and reached over to grab them. The hunter gasped as Rylan's limbs suddenly wrapped around him putting him in a Gogoplata lock, Rylan's shin pressed against the hunters throat while the other leg was wrapped around his neck and Rylan locked his hands behind the hunters head and simply applied pressure. The hunter fell limp, out cold. But with one jerk his neck snapped, Rylan kicked off the dead hunter breathing erratically his shirt torn to hell, face caked with sticky warm blood and a peace of glass wedged into his side. Rylan just cant seem to die, he has all the scars to prove it and a promise to keep.<p>

* * *

><p><strong><em>Oh I got you there didn't I? Relax he's fine but he's been separated from Ellie and Joel, will he be able to find them? Tune in next time and find out on Last of Us and once again, thanks to the 1000 viewers and our followers for their support and don't forget to review.<em>**


	10. Chapter 10: Forsaken

_**Last Of US**_

Episode 10  
>"Forsaken"<p>

Rylan grunted at the pain of the piece of glass wedged into his side, his face was sticky with his own dried blood. He has been out for a while, fresh blood trickled from his cuts on his face and torso. His shirt was torn to hell, there was no saving it, he didn't' have an extra but he could wear his jacket which was not an option due to being in the mid-day summer heat. The boy looked around the wreck, there were no sign of more hunters or Joel and...

"Ellie..." He muttered.

He sighed in relief of seeing two more dead Hunters, and Joel's and Ellie's things were gone. He needed to find her not because of his mother's promise but because Ellie was his friend, his only friend left in this world. He saw they must have left in a hurry no time to check on the bloody teenager. The first thing Rylan had to do was care for the glass in his abdomen, he carefully tore off the shirt to get a closer look at the wound, the glass was in deep but no wear near his arteries because if it was he would have been dead by now. Problem was he needed to stop the bleeding, but he didn't know how to stitch close the wound, _"Can't afford not to." _He remembered Ellie say, and she was right. In this world you need to know everything in order to survive in what's left of the world, in or outside the zones, there was only one thing Rylan knew how to do when it comes to wounds besides bandaging, Cauterization.

Rylan started a small fire, holding the broken piece of windshield in place before pulling it out. Rylan took his trusty knife and placed the tip onto the fire, when it was hot enough the tip of the blade was blazing orange, it made the bloody teenager gulp. He swallowed back the resistance and took a huge breath and pulled out the glass until it was out, he shrieked at the pain, blood started gushing out of the wound. Rylan then clinched every muscle in his body and touched the scorching blade to the broken skin, he let out a bloody painful cry not caring if other hunters heard it or not, this was the second time in his life to be touching a scorching hot piece of metal. The sizzling sound and smell of his own flesh cooking made Rylan... Hungry, most people would feel sick over the smell of flesh but not to Rylan. The wound was closed, he began tending to the other cuts with some bandaging, Rylan didn't bother cleaning his blood soaked face and torso. But now Rylan was hungry, but there was no food around except for...

Rylan stared at the hunter's dead body, but then reached over to feel the letter _D _Branded on his shoulder blade, "No... Not again." He muttered before grabbing his underarm holster containing his Silver Ghost, and his other holster with his Magnum with the one shot. After strapping on his gear and gets his sling back pack, The bloody and shirtless teenager walks through the abandoned city, population: Hunters, and Infected. Rylan was lucky that nothing was broken, yet he was sore and aching all over, from afar he could look like an infected which would easily get him killed, but no one else in this city is nice anyway.

"Where are you Ellie?" He whispered to himself.

He hoped to god if there ever was one that she was alright, he told her she was strong and a survivor and couldn't allow her to shed more tears for him. _'She must be hurting, but She has to stay strong...' _He thought. He couldn't take the pain anymore, he found a nice quiet place to do a few minuets of jiu jitsu meditation, he felt the pain subside and was replaced with calmness.

Rylan was pulled from his meditation by the sound of someone approaching. He looked behind himself and climbed quickly to his feet, ignoring the screaming pain in his abdomen and muscles. He drew the Silver Ghost, and looked around himself. He was inside what had once been a supermarket. Rylan quickly crept behind one of the shelves and listened. He bit down on his tongue to keep himself from groaning; the pain was intense. He moved silently, peeking around the shelf, keeping a tight grip on his weapon. There were hunters, a lot of them, moving around. Rylan listened carefully to their conversation and guessed that they were looking for him and Joel and Ellie.

Rylan did a head count with his eyes. He counted ten guys. Why the hell were they moving around in such a large group together? Rylan had an odd feeling that Joel and Ellie had given the bastards more trouble than they had expected. That raised another question: how long had he been out? It didn't matter. He had to move.

Rylan no moved as quietly as he could, maneuvering his way around the hunters, sometimes just barely avoiding detection. For just a minute there, Rylan felt like he was going to go unnoticed. He was almost out of the supermarket. And then he stepped on a piece of loose rubble from the ceiling above them. It shifted, grinding against the concrete on the ground and other bits and of rubble. It was just loud enough to gain the attention of the hunters. "Shit, tourist!" One of them called. Rylan moved fast, jumping out of the way as a bullet from the hunter's pistol ripped through the air past him. Rylan crouched behind an overturned shelf and waited for the firing to cease, even for a moment.

When Rylan had his chance, he took aim and fired. One of the hunter's heads rocked back with a spray of blood and gray matter as the bullet slammed into his forehead. Rylan crouched back down and looked around him. There were a few more shelves near him and Rylan moved behind them, getting another step closer to the door. He popped off a few more rounds, taking down another hunter. The firing stopped and he heard the familiar sound of a gun being reloaded. Rylan took his chance then, and sprinted for the door.

Rylan hooked a right and began to sprint. He had barely made it a few feet when he went slamming into someone and they both went tumbling to the floor. Rylan let out a groan at the pain that shot through his abdomen. He got back up onto his feet and came face to face with a man who looked to be somewhere in his mid-twenties. He wore a white tank top and blue jeans.

"Hey, hey! Be cool man." He said. Both of them looked back at the sound of the hunters exiting the supermarket. "Hey, maybe you should follow me." He said, motioning for Rylan to follow before running down the street and cutting into an ally. Rylan looked back at the hunters . They had caught sight of him.

"Ah fuck." He muttered before turning to sprint after the man, into the alleyway. The pain was screaming in Rylan's skinny built abdomen, but eventually the pain subsided from the adrenaline rush, the stranger kept leading Rylan through the Alleyway while being chased by the hunter savages. The stranger griped Rylan wrist and pulled him into hiding, The hunters ran right passed them. Rylan and the Stranger can hear distant conversations of the men,

"Where the hell did he go?!" One of the hunters growled.

"Leave him, that kid ain't gettin' that far the way he looked." another gasped.

"Yeah let the others get him..."

"Alright... Get back to the market, we got to take care of our guys. I swear that kid, and that old man and his little bitch is mine when I get my hands on 'em." Then they were gone. Rylan clenched his fist, and fought the urge to rip that guy's head off, they came out of their hiding spot the adrenaline began to subside and the pain returned. Rylan groaned grabbing his side.

"The two they were talking about... friends of yours?" He asked.

"Yeah..." Rylan gasped.

"Well... They're alive by the sound of it. My name's Henry." He said holding out his hand. Rylan leaned up and shook it,

"Rylan..." he smirked. Henry looked over Rylan's condition, bloody, battered, and sliced to hell, Henry whistled at the sight,

"You don't look so good."

Rylan huffed, "You should see the other guy." He joked. "Why did you help me?" He asked suddenly.

"I thought you were an infected at first, but then seeing you still breathing and being chased by those assholes shut that out. I guess you can say that my crew and I have a little disagreement with them too."

"Oh..." Rylan muttered before falling to his knees, Henry caught the boy in his arms,

"Whoa, easy there man..." Henry felt the kid's skin was on fire, "Goddamn, you're burnnin' up... C'mon, let get you outta here." He said helping Rylan to his feet and moving away from the area. Rylan passed out from dehydration and a small fever from some of his wounds being infected by the looks of it, Henry didn't bother to check for bites but wasn't gonna let a kid die out there alone. Rylan's vision went back and forth, not knowing how he managed to keep walking, when his vision came back almost a 10th time he was somewhere in the shade, probably indoors lying down on a cot. He can hear multiple voices at once, he can see a woman near him about to give him a shot,

"What is that?" Rylan gasped,

"Shhh, it's alright, it's amoxicillin. To help get rid of the fever from your infected cuts." She stuck the needle in his arm and injected the antibiotic substance.

"Good, I'm allergic to penicillin." He sighed in relief,

She smiled, "Good thing you reminded me..." she collected the medic kit and walked away, she seemed nice enough. Rylan felt much better considering he was covered in fresh bandaged and stitches. The blood however was yet to be cleaned, and people all around looked nervous seeing him covered in crimson red.

Rylan sat up on the cot slowly, feeling a small wave of nausea wash over him. He squinted one eye and rubbed at his temple gently. He could feel the beginnings of a headache, and his skin felt hot. He knew he had to have an infection, but he tried not to worry about that. He stood slowly and felt another, stronger, wave of nausea wash over him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes and the world wasn't spinning, Rylan surveyed the area he was in. It looked like he was in some store or something. He considered the amoxicillin the woman had given him and guessed it was a drug store...but then again, Rylan doubted amoxicillin had been available in drug stores before the outbreak.

Rylan looked at the woman, suddenly feeling a little uncomfortable. "Uh, thanks for...the meds I guess."

She grinned at him. "No problem, name's Lisa by the way."

"Rylan." he said, shaking her hand when she offered it. He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked down, completely aware for the first time that he didn't have a shirt on. "Hey," he said, looking back to Lisa. "You wouldn't happen to have an extra shirt would you?"

Lisa smiled and chuckled a bit. "Let me go see." Rylan watched her walk off for a moment. He sat down on the cot and rubbed at his temple again. He looked up when Lisa called his name. He caught the shirt she tossed him with one hand and pulled it on. He examined it and thought; _'I look like Joel.'_ It was a red, plaid button-down shirt. He buttoned it up, leaving the top two open, and rolled the sleeves up to just below his elbows. Lisa nodded her head when he had finished and pointed to the floor on the other side of the cot. Rylan looked at it and saw his stuff. He nodded to her and leaned over the cot to pick them up.

Rylan had just finished strapping on his gear when Henry came over. "Hey man, good to see you aren't dead."

Rylan nodded his head. "Yeah, I've definitely had better days." He looked around the drug store at the others. Henry caught this and said;

"Well, you've already met Lisa and me." Rylan nodded his head. He did a headcount. All together there were seven people. Counting himself there was eight. Henry pointed across the pharmacy to an old and ruined magazine rack at a kid, who looked to be a few years younger than Rylan.

"That's Sam-my brother. Lisa, of course. That grouch over there," Henry pointed towards the front door, where a guy near Joel's age stood with a rifle in his hands. "He's Vincent. Decent enough once you get to know him." Rylan's eyes drifted over to what looked like a couple, sitting near the cash registers. "Kevin and Julie. They're kind of inseparable." Then Henry pointed to a woman leaning against the wall with a shotgun in her hands. She had a blank expression on her face, but her eyes were red, the eyelids themselves were puffy and Rylan could tell she had been crying. "That's all of us." Henry said.

Rylan sat back on the cot and stretched his arms a bit. "So, you guys have a plan? Or have you just been hiding here like rabbits?"

Henry snorted. "We're looking for the fireflies. Heard they were stationed somewhere out west. Trying to get there. We were just going through here to get supplies."

"Yeah, that was a great idea, wasn't it?"

Henry snorted again. "Yeah, you're tellin' me." Rylan looked towards the front doors, his thoughts turning to Joel and Ellie. He nudged Henry with his elbow.

"Hate to rain on your parade but, if you want me to go with you, I'm gonna' have to say no. I got people here. We got separated."

Henry thought about it. "Well, we're gonna' be heading out pretty soon. If you want, you can move with us a bit. Ain't exactly safe to keep to one spot around here. Rylan nodded to show his agreement with that. Traveling in numbers was probably better. At least he'd have someone to back him up for a short time. He nodded.

"Yeah, I can work with that."

* * *

><p>Henry, his brother Sam and their group along with Rylan moved out from their camp. Rylan was walking ahead of the rest looking back at the couple holding each other close, Rylan smiled at this. It kind of reminded him of Ellie and Him but not that close obviously, god thinking of it just hurt him worse than the physical pain, after all they almost kissed, twice already. She may have wanted to be more with him but he didn't feel the same way, he felt like shit after that and after the fact that she thinks he's dead already. He made a promise he was looking to keep, and the feelings he had with Ellie were too obvious, some where deep inside he knew he was falling for her too. But what would happen after they get Ellie to the fireflies? Now that thought haunted him even more.<p>

Rylan was snapped out of his thinking when Lisa tapped his shoulder, she smiled at him but frowned upon looking at Rylan's sad expression. "Are you okay?" She asked sweetly. Rylan liked her, well for being friendly of course,

"Y..Yeah just, thinking..." he replied looking down.

"About Ellie?" Rylan was surprised at how she knew that, "Henry told me that you were separated with your people."

Rylan smirked, "Yeah, I promised her that I would protect her, but then we got separated... She thought I was killed from the wreck."

"Oh sweetie..." She gasped, she put a comfortable arm around him. "I'm sure you will be able-"

_*Bang!*_

Lisa and Rylan fell to the ground the others were startled by the gunshot, Rylan tried to move Lisa but a look of horror flashed upon Rylan's face. Lisa's face was covered in blood and her eyes were still, lifeless. He pushed her off to his side, seeing her lying there limp, and being covered in her blood caused him to vomit up whatever was left of the rations he was given to him, by Lisa. Suddenly Rylan began to hear machinegun fire, the woman with the shotgun was the next to fall being torn apart by the rapid gunfire. Vincent took aim with his rifle,

"Eat led, Slackers!" He shouted, but the truck sped right to him running over his body and hearing the bones crush under the tires. Kevin and Julie ran off with each other, Henry rushed over to Rylan and lifted him up to his feet running away from the hunters with him and his little brother Sam. With one glimpse back to Lisa's body Rylan muttered,

"I'm sorry..." Shedding a tear for the poor sole who deserved so much better than being killed by the savages.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Okay people that's it for this week's episode of The Last Of Us, Tune in next week for another exciting adventure with Ellie and Joel. Will they be able to find each other again? Until than, Peace! ~ Exangellion &amp; Revanite201<em>**


	11. Chapter 11: True Feelings

_**Last Of US**_

_**A bit longer episode for you guys, Happy Thanksgiving from your writers.**_

Episode 11  
>"True Feelings"<p>

Ellie was still in complete shock, as she and Joel continued down their path through Pittsburg. She didn't say one word to Joel who of course was mentally cursing at himself leaving Rylan behind. He failed Tess for not protecting her son, and Ellie lost the true friend she ever had left. Once in a while she would cry and not even stop, already she lost two friends who she felt close to, now then they just up and leave her all alone. Ellie missed Rylan and Riley, the two were alike in some ways, maybe that was the reason she liked him but Rylan wasn't a girl, however still he was special to Ellie, he was the only guy she liked. Ellie then remembered that he didn't want her to cry for him anymore, not because of him. He said that she is a survivor, not a child, she couldn't go on with out him but those words made her.

Joel kept hating himself, he knew he should have turned that truck around and Rylan would still be alive. Seeing hunters again brought back unwanted memories of his days as one, it was why he knew that guy in the road was faking it. Joel didn't want to talk about it when Ellie asked him at one point but she took his silence as a yes. Ellie sniffed back her tears that still fell, sometimes not even realizing she was letting loose the grieving tears that stained her dirt rubbed face, Joel didn't ask for her forgiveness at all, he told her to keep their histories to themselves but obviously Rylan and Ellie didn't listen. Joel blocked out his guilty conscious,

"Alright, there's the bridge. That's our way out of here." Joel said, Ellie jumped down to the ground below while he spoke, "Ellie, slow down, wait for me."

"What? I'm right here..." Ellie replied.

"How 'bout you let me go first. And keep your voice down." But Ellie crossed her arms and looked away from him, tear tracks still displaying her cheeks. Joel couldn't take it anymore,

"Ellie... I'm sorry. I am, I was supposed to watch over him, and I failed." Joel then got a horrible flashback when he went through this kind of thing once with Sarah, his late daughter. Another stray tear escaped Ellie's eye,

"Joel... let's just go." She said. Joel only nodded as they continued on the long walk to the bridge. Joel and Ellie had to sneak past the old quarantine zone habited by Hunters, which was hard enough. They were closer to the bridge now, but things went from bad to worse seeing that the hunters now have a mounted machine-gun jeep.

"What the hell? Oh this place is bad." Joel muttered, Ellie looked around the flooded area

"I can't make that jump." She said.

"Just, wait here... I'll find something." Joel assured while jumping into the water, After Ellie and Joel team work skills the two search the old coffee shop,

"Ugh! This place stinks." Ellie exclaimed smelling the strong scent of unattended rotting wooden counters and tabletops, she heard of coffee shops before but never even got the chance of having some. Joel went to coffee shops all the time before the outbreak, when Ellie asked of course for her being born right after everything went to shit. When they reached the old hotel Ellie was in awe,

"Whoa... this is fancy. Ever stay in a place like this? Before it all went to shit I mean."

Joel huffed, "No... no, this is too rich for my blood."

Without even thinking she looked back, "Hey Rylan do you..." But then it hit her, again she started crying. Joel sighed and gripped her shoulders her as she sobbed,

"Ellie... You got to stop torturing yourself over this. What happened to Rylan is not your fault." Ellie pulled away and wiped her eyes, she nodded in agreement but she can't take the pain of leaving Rylan behind, but she owed it to him to keep going. As they went up the stairs, more Hunters roamed the halls, Joel had no choice but to kill them. After a couple of close calls and more dead Hunters by his hand Joel and Ellie cut through the elevator shaft, Joel boosted up Ellie to the elevator doors then all the sudden the elevator car came loose and fell down the shaft with Joel.

"Joel!" Ellie cried while climbing into the hallway, Joel emerged from the flooded shaft, coughing and grunting in the pain from the impact,

"I'm alright! You okay?" Joel asked.

"No! You scared the shit outta me!" Ellie spat. "I'll climb down!"

"No! No you stay there, I'll make my way up to you!"

"Don't do anything stupid!" Ellie replied. Then Joel disappeared finding away back up. Ellie curled into a ball against the wall and began crying, again.

"Rylan... Please don't leave me alone... Please, I can't do this again..." She sobbed.

* * *

><p>Joel fired his shotgun at the head of a runner, causing it to explode gray matter across the walls. More runners screeched and clawed their way to him, sweat pouring down his face and his gas mask fogging up, incapacitating his vision causing him to blindly fire off a couple of shots where the faint moving figures stood. Joel barely got out in time to drink up the fresh air he encountered when he ran up the stairs, discarding the traitorous mask and kill the remaining of his cannibalistic, infected pursuers.<p>

"So much for that.." He gasped catching his breath, "I gotta find Ellie..." Joel then picked up his mask, he couldn't go anywhere without one and proceeded up the stairwell back into the hotel. This time he entered the kitchen he immediately ducked into cover,

*Bang!*

"Ok it's down, finish it!" A hunter shouted, his partner walked over and shot it in the head making sure it's officially dead.

"Nicely done, you bit?" The partner asked,

"Not today, you?"

"Not today." He replied.

Being as quiet as possible, Joel took down each of them by getting close and driving shivs into their necks. Blood poured over his hand from holding their throats open for the blade to sink into. Joel then gasped at the sight of another hunter surprising him, Joel pulled out his revolver and shot him once in the head like Clint Eastwood quick draw scenes from _good, the bad, and the ugly. _Luckily for Joel they were the only three hunters in there, but after looking around with his revolver gripped in his hand he sighed in relief and holstered his weapon. Just when he though it was safe climbing the ladder,

*Smack!*

Joel felt something hit him and fell back to the ground, into a deep puddle of water breathing in the liquid. He sat up coughing up the water he choked, before he was able to get his bearings, a hunter pounced on top of him and began holding Joel's head underwater. Joel struggled until he managed to get a good solid hit to the hunter's face, but he didn't go down, instead made him angry and once again began holding Joel's head underwater. Joel tried to reach for the gun he found while under the water but the hunter used his free hand to stop him, Joel felt his vision slip away drowning.

*Bang!*

The hunter fell off him, Joel leaned up gasping the air into his lungs, and coughing up the water. He saw Ellie holding the gun with wide eyes,

She gasped and was shocked from killing someone, "Man... I shot the hell outa that guy, huh?" She said. The hunter's body lied there limp in the water and the water began running with red.

"Yeah you sure did." Joel replied.

Ellie collapsed onto a milk create with her head held low, "I feel sick..."

Joel walked over and snatched the gun from her, "Why didn't you just hang back like I told you to?"

Ellie then remembered what Rylan said back in Lincoln,

_"Look, I know how you feel. Being treated like a child, My mom would shove me away from danger all the time. I had to show her I was capable. You just have to show Joel, he may change his mind or maybe not you just have to let him now that you are capable." Rylan said catching her full attention, "I knew you are capable from the moment I met you, after all I put you through what I said to you. I hurt you both physically and mentally, I can see it in your eyes since Boston. I don't expect your forgiveness but despite all that, you kept your head up and you toughed through it. You saved both our asses, more times than I could count. You're not a child Ellie, your a survivor."_

_Ellie smiled and leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, "That was for saving me, and... I do forgive you Riley."_

_Rylan remembered what he said about what would happen if she called him 'Riley' but he just smirked, "Ok then... Fresh start?"_

_Ellie shrugged, "Got no problem with that." She grinned._

Ellie looked back up at Joel, "You're glad I didn't, right?"

"I'm glad I didn't get my head blown off by a goddamn kid."

Ellie sat up, anger flashed in her eyes, "You know what, no!" She spat, "How about, 'Hey Ellie, I know it wasn't easy, but it was either him or me, thanks for saving my ass.' You got anything like that for me Joel?"

Joel sighed, he knew he should at least thank her but all he managed to say, "We gotta get going."

"Lead the way," Ellie scoffed.

Joel and Ellie passed through the banquet hall, Joel was gonna push the old piano against the wall for a boost but was too heavy for him to budge.

"Ellie, help me out with this..." Joel asked.

She turned to him, "You sure you can trust me with that?"

"Ellie..." Joel growled, she walked over and began helping push the piano against the wall where both of them climbed up. Joel took point as he climbed out the window onto the balcony which led to a makeshift sniper's post. Joel stopped at the sound of a gun clicking at the side of his head, he looked dead ahead frozen in place,

"Put you hands up in the air..." A young voice said, Joel did as he asked and put them up. Ellie from behind Joel froze in place from seeing the familiar gun barrel, her eyes widened. "Now wave em' like you just don't care..."

"Rylan?!" Joel exclaimed, he turned to see, him alive and well except he was covered in blood and wore red flannel shirt.

Rylan smirked, "Christ Joel... you scared the shit outta me." Then Rylan socked him across the face, Joel tumbled backwards, "And that was for leaving me behind, Dick!" Rylan grunted. Rylan turned to see Ellie, her emerald color eyes widened and glistened with tears she jumped over the balcony and onto the post and just threw her arms around him, he grunted in pain from the impact and she didn't care. She ended up crying into his shoulder.

"I fucking hate you!" She sobbed. Rylan returned the hug pulling her much closer, stroking the back of her head.

"I should have buckled up, huh." He chuckled. She pulled from the hug and touched her forehead to his, her hands were griped around his neck. Her tears of joy fell down her face, she smiled and bit her lip, then without warning she kissed him before he could react, but he didn't move. Her lips were sweet on his dry and chapped lips but he didn't kiss back, and what was strange about it is that he didn't know why, there was just something that didn't spark the feeling to have the mutual feeling.

"Oh shit get down!" Joel whispered, pulling the teens away from each other and into cover, "Keep your heads down." Joel did a head count of hunters that flooded the courtyard below. "Alright I'm gonna jump down there and I'm gonna clear us a path." Ellie shook herself away from the moment,

"What about us?" Ellie asked kneeling next to the battered Rylan.

"You two are staying here..." Joel said.

"Joel, I think we have more of a chance to let Ellie help out this time, I'm in no shape to fight..." Rylan said, "Plus," Rylan ejected the clip from his Silver Ghost, "I'm all out..."

"Ellie," Joel said, "You seem to know your way around a gun. I reckon you can handle that." Holding out a rifle,

She winced, "I sorta shot a rifle before..." She said taking the rifle. "But it was at rats."

"Rats?" Rylan asked.

"With BB's..."

"Well, it's the same basic concept. Lift it up." Joel said, Ellie took aim with the rifle. "Ok now you are gonna lean right into the stock because it's gonna have a kick a hell of a lot more than any BB rifle."

"Ok." She replied. Joel then told her to load the chamber by pulling back the bolt and that she had to keep reloading after each shot.

"Listen to me... If I get into any trouble down there. You make every shot count, yeah?"

"I got this." She said. Before Joel jumped down into the court yard, he looked back and said,

"Just so we're clear back there... It was either him or me." Then he jumped down.

"You're welcome..." She muttered.

Rylan looked up to her, "Don't forget to breathe."

* * *

><p>"They are all dead!" A hunter shouted, "They're all fucking dead!"<p>

"What the hell's he yapping about? Take a breath. Who's dead?" The other asked.

"Whole crew. The 76 lookout guys. Some fuckin' tourist killed them. Killed all of 'em."

"Shit... Have you talked to the boss?"

"Yeah, he wants everyone to hold their ground. Watch the gate." All the sudden, a Molotov shattered in front of them setting them ablaze and they screamed in pain, a shot zipped from the sky hitting a hitter in the head and fell limp to the ground. Joel peaked out behind cover duel wielding his 9mm and revolver popping off rounds at the surrounding Hunters, killing three and managed to injure the rest. Another sniper took aim his rile but Ellie managed to take him out,

"Good job kiddo." Joel muttered.

After killing off the remaining hunters, Joel told the teens to come down. Ellie stood up and lent Rylan her hand, Rylan took it and hoisted up to his feet. He dusted off his pant, still letting out painful groans from his injuries.

"Nice shootin' Tex." Rylan said, Ellie smiled and helped Rylan jump down to the ground and walk up to Joel who was picking up a Walther PPK or 'Spy' gun as Rylan called it.

"How did I do?" She asked. Joel too the rifle from her and set it down, he checked the clip of the Walther and loaded the chamber,

"How 'bout something a little more your size?" Joel said handing the gun to Ellie. "It's for emergencies only.."

"Ok.." She said taking the gun and holstering it in her waistband. Rylan smiled at her and winked. Ellie smirked back and blushed a little still replaying the kiss over and over again in her mind.

"Are you okay?" She asked rather sweetly. Rylan nodded,

"I'm fine, I'm just pushing myself too far." He said.

"Well we better get outta here before anymore show up. And Rylan... Stick close."

Rylan smirked, "Lead the way Joel."

* * *

><p>Ellie seemed more of herself again as they reunited with Rylan, Joel then promised himself that he would look after him better, after all he owed that to Tess. As the three pressed on, they ducked into cover by the sound of Machine-Gun fire. Rylan looked up and can see two familiar people get shot in the middle of the street,<p>

"Fuck! No... Kevin and Julie.. Shit." He muttered quietly covering his mouth. Ellie placed her hand on his shoulder, as the hunters finished off Julie, shot her in the back. Rylan clinched his fist tight,

"Busy couple of days, huh?" A hunter asked.

"Whatever man. No food, old pair of shoes.. They got nothin'."

The jeep then pulled away, Rylan slammed a fist against the wall. Ellie jumped and rubbed circles around his back,

"You knew them?" She asked.

"Kevin and Julie, part of the group that helped me... we got separated by that fuckin' truck."

"There was nothin' we could have done... Let's just get to the bridge."

Joel, Ellie, and Rylan, then came back outside with Ellie still walking by Rylan not even leaving his side again after what happened. She thought he died back there but he came back, she couldn't be more thankful for that,

"Riley-" She said before the Jeep appeared from behind the corner and began shooting at them, "Fuck!" Ellie cried.

"Run!" Joel shouted, the three began darting into the alley way and climbed onto the fire escape. They did against the wall of the building until the jeep disappeared. They all caught their breath, Rylan kept grunting at the screaming pain in his side. "Okay, lets cut through the building and off the streets where that jeep is." Joel climbed into the window, all the sudden someone grabs him from behind. Ellie rushes in and slashes the guy's arm with her switchblade, Rylan jumped in after and began holding Ellie back,

"Joel, Stop! Joel!" Rylan pleaded Joel who was pounding the attacker, They looked to see a kid pointing his gun towards him.

"Leave him alone!" The Kid said.

"Put the gun down, Sam." Rylan said. "They're with me."

Joel turned to him, "You know em'?"

"They saved my life..." Ellie put away her switchblade, the attacker was revealed to be Henry.

"Man you hit hard.." He said.

"Yeah, well I was trying to kill you." Joel replied.

Henry hopped to his feet, "Yeah, I thought you were one of them too. But then I saw her, then Rylan. Good to see you still alive, man."

"You too Henry... They got Kevin and Julie." Henry's face fell,

"Goddamnit..." He muttered.

"You're bleeding." Sam said. Henry began wrapping his arm in a bandage he took from Sam's backpack,

"This is Joel and Ellie." Rylan introduced, he turned to them, "That's Henry, and his little brother Sam."

Joel nodded, "How many you got with you?"

"It's just us... Me, Sam, and Rylan were the only ones who got away from the ambush. Now it's all about getting out of this shithole."

"We can help." Ellie said. But Joel interjected, "What? Safety in numbers and all that."

"She's right Joel, I trust em'." Rylan said.

"I found a hideout, be safer if we chat there." Henry added.

* * *

><p>Ellie and Sam got to know each other a little better on the way to the hideout, Henry talked about. They passed through the toy store where Sam got a scolding from his brother about trying to take what they don't need; a toy. After a few encounters with the Hunters, they had finally arrived at the hideout.<p>

"So... How old are you? Sam asked Ellie.

"Fourteen, you?" She replied.

"Same."

"Oh you're fourteen, huh?" Henry teased.

"I'm close." Sam spat. Henry chuckled a little as he opened the door to the office, which had a sofa. Rylan was in heaven when he plopped down onto it letting out a comfortable sigh of relief.

"Hey Sam? Still got them Blueberries?" Rylan asked. Sam nodded and the three teens helped themselves to the snack, while Joel and Henry began having a conversation.

"Blueberries, found a whole stash of them." Henry said.

"No." Joel spat.

"Hey, man relax. We're safe."

"So why haven't you left?"

"Been waiting for the right opportunity, then Rylan showed up half dead."

"Thanks for looking after him..."

"No problem.. Now all there is getting to that bridge." Henry said walking up to the window, Hunters were guarding it a lot of them. "Come night time, it's a skeleton crew. After sunset, that's our window."

"That'll work."

Henry looked over to the kids were laughing and enjoying some Blueberries, Henry smiled at seeing his little brother smile which he hasn't seen in a long time. Ellie scooted closer to Rylan, smiling at him and handing him more blueberries.

"She doesn't seemed bothered by any of this." Henry said.

Joel decided to change the subject, "So where are you headin'?"

Henry pulled out a chair, "Heard the fireflies are based out west somewhere, we're gonna join up with them."

"Seems like a lot of people putting their stock on the Fireflies these days."

"Yeah. Maybe there is a reason for that."

"So you don't know where they are and you're just gonna drag him across the country to find 'em?" Joel scoffed motioning towards Sam, Henry scooted close,

"I'll tell you what, how about I worry about my brother and you worry about your kids?"

"Easy. We're looking for the Fireflies too." Henry smirked and went over the plan with Joel, the plan was at night they had to sneak across the bridge and to an abandoned military radio station where he and his group were originally were going to go. Joel accepted the plan, and Henry suggested they rest up.

The sun fully set in the distance, Rylan couldn't sleep. His face and torso was still sticky with blood which he decided was a good time to wash off, Ellie was still sleeping on her side of the couch, Sam was on the floor and Joel and Henry were in the chairs. Rylan sneaked into the joined room and began wiping the blood away with a wet rag. The rag went from white to crimson red with his own dried blood, his torso was completely cleaned and he went to clean off his face. He used his knife as a mirror to see where he was dabbing the rag but then saw Ellie's reflection. She leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, she was smirking. Rylan turned to her, his face still stained with blood.

She walked over and took the rag, "Here," She said, dabbing the rag across his cheeks, his forehead and nose until he looked more like himself. She smiled that he more recognizable, their faces were inches apart Rylan cupped her cheek and smiled but he turned away. He damped his long hair in water then slicked it back the way he liked it. He slipped on his red flannel shirt and began buttoning it up but leaving the last three open.

Rylan looked at Ellie again, crossing his arms. "Why did you kiss me?" He asked. The question caught her off guard,

"I... I don't know..." She pause and sat down in on of the chairs. "I kind a like you I guess... But..."

"But what?" Rylan asked, waiting for a straight answer.

"I'm... Well.." She then let out a frustrated sigh, "I'm gay, okay?" But Rylan only nodded, which threw her off. "You don't seemed surprised..."

"What? You expected me to judge you? I kinda suspected as much that you were gay, I know because My sister was gay." Ellie's eyes widened. "Look, I like you too... I do, but your Gay and that's a given, but what I don't get is why you like someone whose not a girl. And when you kissed me it felt like it didn't mean anything." Ellie opened her mouth but closed it, then she spoke,

"I only... You saved me, you protected me probably more than Marlene did. I lost people in the past, especially somebody close to me, and when I thought you died at that crash, my whole world fell apart. When I saw you alive I just..."

"Okay." Rylan said suddenly, "Okay. I get it, but, our sexuality's isn't something we chose, it just happens. There is some one out there for everyone of all sexualities, believe it or not sometimes it's mixed but that's rare, True love is hard to find. Jessica she may have been gay but it only took one guy to steal her heart, and I know that's a rare head line "Lesbian and straight guy hook up." But it happened... I don't see that for us." He walked over to her and kissed her on the head, "I saved you, protected you, and we talked, I'm just not convinced that you are willing to have a steady relationship with me. As far as I'm concerned You only wanted to thank me in some way... and well... your welcome."

Rylan walked back into the office room, leaving Ellie sitting there staring right where Rylan stood and she subconsciously shed a tear, she was gay. But her feelings for Rylan were obvious but she couldn't tell him because of her sexuality and because of it, it left her sitting there... heartbroken.


	12. Chapter 12: Wendigo

_**Last Of US**_

_**MID SEASON FINALE**_

Episode 12  
>"Wendigo"<p>

Ellie didn't move from her spot after Rylan left her there, alone to her thoughts. Rylan went back to sleep, the sun was setting and darkness settled in, Henry woke up and then woke his brother Sam.

"Ellie, tell Joel and Rylan to wake up it's time to go." Henry said checking his backpack making sure he had everything he needed for sneaking over the wall guarded by a few hunters. Ellie nodded and rose from the chair and walked up to Joel who was still asleep in his chair.

Ellie shook him awake, "Hey..." Joel's eyes fluttered open, "He says it's time to go." She said. Joel grunted with a stiff yawn and rubbed his eyes,

It felt good to get some rest after what they been through and yet was itching for more when they reach the radio tower Henry talked about. Ellie then walked to Rylan who was asleep on the couch, she knelt right below him and just watched him sleep for a moment. She smiled as she brushed his cheek with her finger tips, she spent the entire time thinking instead of sleeping. Rylan eyes were moving behind his closed lids he was dreaming about something's he tried to forget, one day sitting eating meat that made him crave for more, the rare cut of meat was something Rylan hadn't tried before yet it was delicious _'A mans gotta eat...' a voice said while Rylan was scarfing the bloody peace of meat and his eyes drew to a guy missing an arm. _Rylan shot awake and met Ellie's gaze,

"Ellie? What's wrong?" He asked tiresome, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"It's time to go..." She replied. Rylan nodded and sat up, he tugged on his bomber jacket and buttoning up the top of his flannel shirt.

Ellie rose to her feet and turned away but Rylan grabbed her hand, she gasped silently then he asked, "Are you okay? With what I said before?"

Ellie sighed and looked back at him, "Y..Yeah... You're right. 'Us' can't work, but..." She paused, Rylan flinched. "We'll talk later..." She whispered.

Rylan was about to speak but then closed his mouth and nodded, she smiled and leaned down to kiss him on the cheek and turn back to Joel to go over their supplies. Rylan smirked and decided to do his ammo and supply check. After Henry went over his gear, he leaned close to his little brother,

"Now we're gonna be moving fast, okay? So no matter what you stick like glue." Henry said, making sure Sam caught every word.

"Like Glue." Sam repeated.

"Like Glue."

"Got it." Sam said.

"Good. Good." Henry patted Sam's shoulder. Rylan, Joel, and Ellie then came up behind them all packed up and ready to go. "Alright. Y'all ready?"

"Yeah." Joel replied.

Henry took point leading all them through the building at the late hour of night, making no sound as possible. Joel has slight doubts that Henry knew what he was doing, but Henry assured that he did. When back down to the ground level, Henry and Joel silently kill the two hunters guarding the lobby. Suddenly they all take cover from hearing gunshots. The spot light locked in the distance, they all sighed in relief when the Hunters were taking down some infected. One at a time Joel, Rylan, Ellie, Henry, and Sam sneak across the street avoiding the spot light and embracing the darkness which was their best friend at the time until the reached the wall.

Rylan used his bow to take out a lone guard on the ground, the arrow whooshed through the air and pierces right through the hunter's throat. The hunter falls to the ground making gurgling sounds of choking on his own blood until he suffocates. Joel rose his rifle at the guard manning the spot light but Rylan stops him, Joel then sees Rylan attaching the silencer to his Silver Ghost and took aim and the silent shot zipped through the air striking the guard in the head, blood glistened in the moonlight as it sprays out the exit wound of the guard's noggin.

Rylan then did a head count of the remaining sentries killed off a few more until one fired at them ducking for cover. The loud shot from his gun alerted other hunters to their presence, Joel rose his rifle and took a few shots, eventually hitting the hunter. Henry helped out by firing his pistol at the remaining two sentries, then Rylan and Joel helped finish them off.

"Alright, we did it." Henry said, checking the clip in his pistol.

Rylan turned to Ellie and Sam, "You two alright?" He asked, detaching his silencer from his Silver Ghost and holstering it.

"We're solid." She replied.

Rylan nodded and thought about something, he unhooked his bow and handed it to Ellie with a couple of arrows. Ellie looked surprised but smirked as she took the bow and arrows from him,

"You say your a pretty good shot, prove it." Rylan winked before joining Henry and Joel at the gate helping them try to open it.

Suddenly headlights appeared, Joel and Henry shoved open the gate and the kids ran through and Joel and Henry closed the gate again then barred it. The only question was how long do they have before the door holds against the Jeep.

"Keep your eyes open, we ain't out of this mess yet." Joel breathed. Je looked around to see half a latter on a semi's cargo hold, he ran over and to Henry said, "Alright check it out!" Joel then helped boost Henry onto the Cargo hold.

"We're good, Sam let's go." Henry said.

_*Crash!*_

The Jeep was trying to break through the gate, Joel boosted Sam up to Henry onto the Cargo hold, followed by Ellie. The ladder broke off when Ellie gripped onto it but Henry caught her and pulled her up.

"Okay we got to get them up." Ellie said. Henry panicked by seeing the hunters trying to break through the gate,

"I'm sorry. We're leaving." Henry said.

"What?" Sam gasped, but Henry pulled him with him in the other direction.

"What? This is Bullshit! What the fuck Henry?!" Ellie cried.

Rylan and Joel were trapped below with angry Hunters threatening to break through. Ellie jumped down to the ground, Rylan and Joel gave her a disapproving look.

"We stick together." She said.

Joel thought quick and lifted up the old shutter, Rylan and Ellie crawled right under and with the two of them held it open for Joel. He rolled right under, Ellie and Rylan dropped the shutter down closed just in time before the hunter's mounted machinegun jeep began to open fire at them.

"Alright... Now how the fuck do we get outta here?" Rylan gasped. All three of them sneak through the bar, squeezing through the chained door and finally they were at the bridge, almost halfway out of Pittsburgh.

_*Crash!*_

Hunters tried to break trough the other gate, Rylan took Ellie's hand and led her to the bridge with Joel following behind them. The Jeep busts through the gate and the mounted machine gunner began firing, at them as they ran. The jeep then stopped to a dead end, but then again so have Joel, Rylan, and Ellie, the entire bridge was out.

"Shit!" Rylan exclaimed clutching onto Ellie's hand.

"Oh fuck!" Ellie said.

"How many bullets do you have left?" Joel asked Rylan,

"You fucking serious? They are gonna kill us!" Rylan argued.

"What other choice do we have?"

"We jump." Ellie suggested, Rylan thought about it for a minuet.

"No. It's too high and you can't swim. I'll boost you up and you run past them." Joel said. The Jeep began shoving other cars out of the way a few more seconds they would be torn to shreds.

Ellie looked to Rylan, "You'll keep me afloat."

"Ellie." Joel growled.

"No time to argue." Rylan said pulling Ellie close and she wrapped her arms around him and they both jumped off the bridge.

"Rylan!" Joel shouted. "Ah, damn it!" Joel followed behind them.

Water filled their senses as they get caught by the current dragging them away from the danger zone. Ellie sputtered and coughed out the water as Rylan held her up, her arms were locked in place around his neck their faces so close to each others.

"I got you..." Rylan assured,

Joel was no where in sight, Rylan gasped at the incoming boulder in the water and being caught in the strong current, _"This is gonna suck!" _Rylan thought as he turned his back towards it.

"Aw... shit..." Rylan braced.

_*Slam*_

* * *

><p>Rylan blacked out, and began to slip into a dream. The dream was more than a memory, a vivid flashback from the past. Rylan was chopping wood, an armed guard was watching him work and the brand on his shoulder blade was fresh, he looked to his right to see his mother Tess working her own chores. A man walks over to Rylan and sets down a plate of meat next to him,<p>

_"You have done a good job, kid. Eat somethin' you've earned it..." The man said, being 'friendly' but unfortunately in Rylan's book that guy wasn't friendly._

_"C'mon David I don't think we should be wasting perfectly good meat on the slave labor."_

_"That's Quite enough, Jack... This kid seems to fit in pretty nice, not to mention he can handle himself."_

_"I'd rather chew on that guy's leg." Rylan said pointing to Jack._

_David smirked, "In this world you best do whatever you can to survive... A man's gotta eat. You best remember that Rylan." David said patting the boy on the shoulder._

"Riley? Riley wake up!" Ellie pleaded shaking awake the soaked and dazed teen. Rylan's eyes fluttered open, and began to cough. "Hey you. We're alive..." Ellie sighed hugging him.

"I'm alright... Where's Joel?" Rylan asked. Ellie shrugged and began looking around then saw him come out of the water,

"Joel! Over here!" Ellie said. Joel sprinted over to the teens,

"You two alright?" Joel said, dripping wet.

"Just peachy, old man."

"Hey who are you callin' _old_ rug rat?" Joel countered. The three shared a chuckle,

"Henry, he's awake and Joel is here!" A voice called.

"Sam?" Rylan said.

"You see what did I tell you? He's good. Everything's fine." Henry chuckled walking up with Sam. Joel began walking up to him, "You guys have taken quite a bit of water, when-"

*Smack*

Henry hit the ground and Joel took his pistol, "The fuck's wrong with you?!" Henry spat,

"Henry!" Sam cried.

Joel pointed his gun at Sam, "Get back, son!" he growled.

"He's pissed but he's not gonna do anything."

"You sure about that?" Joel said.

"Stop!" Sam shouted.

"Joel..." Ellie intervened.

"He left us to die out there..."

"No. You had a chance to make it out there and you did. But coming back for you meant putting him at risk." Henry said pointing to Sam then telling his to stand back.

"He saved us, We woulda drowned." Ellie assured.

"Let it go, Joel." Rylan said. Joel sighed and tossed Henry's gun to the dirt, Sam knelt down to his brother.

"It's fine though. I'm okay." Henry hopped to his feet. "You know for what it's worth I'm really glad we spotted you... That radio tower is on the other side of this cliff." Henry and Sam scouted a head along the shoreline.

"Man, that was intense... You ok?" Ellie asked. Rylan shrugged off his soaking wet bomber jacket and folded it onto his sling back pack.

"I'm fine, and you?" Rylan asked back,

"I'm ok..." She assured.

"You two! Keep up." Joel shouted from a distance.

The five survivors searched the abandoned boat for supplies, they tuned up with little stuff but Joel managed to find Ellie another one of the Savage Starlight comics. Henry and Joel decide to head into the sewers. They held open the grate for the kids to go through then got in after themselves. The sewers were damp and dark and it ran like a maze, the place sent shivers down Ellie's spine. Rylan subconsciously held her hand, and she interlocked their fingers, Sam and Henry returned shortly after exploring the other tunnel when they all entered.

"You think they'll join us? All the way to Tommy's?" Ellie asked.

"I don't know, I guess we'll have to see what comes along." Rylan replied.

Henry and Sam weren't going anywhere special at the moment so the five of them stood together through the journey deeper into the sewers. The smell and the dampness of the sewers got on their nerves especially the younger ones, meaning Ellie and Sam, and Rylan too but he was used to it for whatever reason... Rylan on the other hand couldn't stop remembering what he had remembered about when he was unconscious, maybe it was because he was hungry and remembering what that psycho David talked about began to make sense to him again, and Rylan swore to himself that David's methods weren't the answer, at least not anymore.

Ellie asked Rylan what was bothering him but he didn't want to get in this topic, he didn't mean to brush her off but he just couldn't talk about it. After making it across the flooded area, the five survivors came up to a more decorative entrance,

"Uhh, What the hell is this?" Ellie asked.

"You think people are living in here?" Henry asked.

"Looks like it.." Rylan said.

"Are we really going in there?" Ellie asked tightening her grip on Rylan's hand.

"No other choice." Joel said

Joel proceeded to open the door then was startled by the sound of bottles being shattered on the ground.

"Oh shit!" Joel exclaimed.

Henry came from behind him, "Sound trap..."

"A what?" Ellie asked.

"It's sort of an alarm... Someone used to live here."

Rylan looked around, "Don't look like that's the case anymore..."

The place was deserted, Sam didn't like the idea someone had to be living in the sewers. Joel's eyes were drawn to a board near the entrance that stated an 'important notice'. People tried to keep things organized while being held up down here but now the place was deserted, the place was quiet... Too quiet. There were no signs of infected anywhere, not to mention it has been a while since they had seen any infected because of the hunters doing a surprisingly good job of keeping Pittsburgh untouched. Sam and Ellie found a make shift soccer goal which they played around with, kids lived here too, a lot of people have.

_*Distant screeching and roaring*_

"You hear that? Infected." Ellie whispered.

"Shhh. Shhh. Quiet." Joel waved. Joel took point with his weapon drawn,

_*Click* *Rorahagh!*_

Joel fired his gun at the runners and clickers that stormed the area, the noise they made at the entrance must have riled them up somewhere deeper in the sewers,

"There are more heading our way!" Rylan shouted drawing his silver ghost, Henry pulled Sam behind him and drew his pistol. Blood colored the water crimson red beneath their feet as the dead bodies of infected piled up, the sweet strong smell of gun powder filled the air and empty shell casings clinked onto the ground.

Ellie checked her Walther, still had some rounds left. "Well. I guess we know what happened to these people."

"Seeing as how there was a clicker, they've been gone for awhile." Joel added loading more shells into his 12 gauge.

Henry reloaded his pistol, "We keep moving forward. All we can do is hope that there aren't any more of 'em."

_*Stomach Rumbling*_

"What the hell was that?" Sam asked.

"My bad..." Rylan muttered. Ellie giggled slightly,

Rylan was hungry but so was everyone else, normally this didn't happen often, being bothered about the lack of food he's been getting. But ever since that dream, or flashback his 'cravings' gotten worse and worse as more time pushed on. As Rylan tried to take control of his stomach rumblings they all pressed on deeper into the sewers, there was no turning back after this point.

_*Bang*_

Joel was startled by the sight of a barrel fall to the ground, 'Another alarm?' He thought, Joel looked back to see a huge metal gat about to fall,

"Oh Shit!" Joel exclaimed. Rylan followed Joel's gaze and the gate was about to fall on Sam, but he was fast enough to pull him away before the steel gate crushed him.

"Sam!" Henry cried.

"Yeah, I'm cool, Rylan had my back..." Sam gasped.

"That was me. I must've triggered a safety gate or somethin'." Joel said. Joel, Rylan, and Sam were trapped on the other side and Henry and Joel tried to lift the gate open with no success. Ellie walked up to the small opening in the gate,

"So... this is awkward." Ellie said to Rylan.

_*Click* *Click*_

"Clickers!" Ellie exclaimed, a pack of them came running at Henry and Ellie. The gate wasn't budging and had no other choice but to run,

"Sam, you stay close to them!" Henry ordered.

"Henry we got to fucking move!" Ellie spat.

"You keep her safe!" Rylan shouted to Henry as they ran off, away from the clickers. Rylan watched as the clickers ran past until they were gone from sight, he turned to Sam and patted his shoulder, "He'll be alright, you better stay close."

* * *

><p>Joel, Sam, and Rylan explored the tunnels, separated from Henry and Ellie. Joel and Rylan hopped that Ellie was ok, and Sam was just as worried too and for his big brother. Rylan assured the kid that nothing bad will happen almost a hundred times, he wasn't willing to watch another kid loose a sibling. Rylan was also not willing to loose Ellie, not because of his promise but because he liked her. As they moved down through the tunnels they suddenly hear distant shouting and gunfire,<p>

"Is that Ellie?" Sam asked. Without question they all ran to the sounds of the gun fire and can see Henry and Ellie run towards them,

"Sam!" Henry called running to him and hugging his little brother, Ellie followed up behind him until she saw Rylan and Joel,

"Oh thank god..." She gasped.

Rylan saw the hoard of Clickers come around the corner, "Aw shit, RUN!" he screamed running with the others away from the clickers as fast as they could. Joel barred the door as soon as they entered but it wouldn't hold for long. Sam managed to crawl through the duct to the other side of the blocked gate and opened it for the others to continue. With luck they all entered an Armory filled with some weapons but they still had to get out or be eaten alive by clickers.

Ellie's gaze fell upon an open window above the blocked door, "Here, boost me up!" She said.

"Open it from the other side! C'mon Sam You're not staying here." Henry said.

"What about you?" Sam asked.

"I'll be fine. Come on. Go." Henry then boosted Sam out the window and he, Rylan, and Joel get ready to fend off the Clickers until Ellie and Sam unblock the door. Rylan threw Molotov's at the clickers invading the room and Henry and Joel unleash with a couple of shotguns. Rylan signaled the others when just enough space was cleared for them to squeeze through the door. As they were outside Joel shoved the door shut and moved the vending machine back into place blocking the door.

"Fresh Air..." Henry gasped.

"Look at this..." Sam said pointing to the wall. _'Warning: Infected inside SO NOT OPEN'_

"Oh, are you fucking kidding me?" Ellie scoffed, "Thanks for the warning on the other side, guys."

Rylan sat on the steps drinking all the fresh air and catching his breath. Ellie sat down next to him and hugged him,

"I'm alright, just a bit winded..." Rylan assured. Joel came over to them,

"How about you Ellie?" Joel asked.

"Business as usual, right? When I was with Henry, I took out a couple of infected by myself. You'd be proud." She said.

"Yeah..." Joel muttered.

The radio tower was insight in the distance, for once they had a nice change of scenery, an old neighborhood. Henry went on about how he remembered these kind of things before the outbreak. He was at least still a toddler at the time but he could still remember the smell of BBQ's, people laughing, and having a good time. Just talking about BBQ's made Rylan's stomach growl even more, after talking about food the more cravings he began to get. As they continued through the neighborhood most of the houses had warning signs against looters but it was just all talk now.

"Oh.. Doggies." Ellie said like a giddy little girl, which made Rylan smile a little.

"You're gonna want to stay away from those. It's not like it is in the zone. These are wild..." Joel said.

Rylan saw that the three dogs and one cub were a pack of Siberian Huskies, a beautiful breed of half wolf and half dog. Their fur were black and white just like the ones Rylan saw in the mountains one point in his life. He walked up to the four dogs, the huskies stood it's ground and growled at the boy coming at them, Rylan knelt down in front of the dogs and just looked into the alpha's eyes. Rylan's and the Husky's eyes matched in a way and the alpha began to pant and sat, it tilted its head then heard a noise as it's ears popped up and ran off along with his other pack members.

"Wow..." Ellie said in awe, "I didn't know you were good with dogs."

"Siberian Huskies, my favorite kind of breed..."

"Why's that?" Sam asked.

"Because they are half wolf which makes them even better companions. Even better when they are wild." Rylan said before pressing on.

Ellie walked up to a truck, "What is this?" She asked pointing to the different types of ice cream printed on it's side with a small window opening on the side.

"Oh, this is an ice cream truck." Sam said.

"An Ice cream truck?"

"Yeah, henry told me about these. They'd sell ice cream out of the truck

"What? No way, Joel?" Ellie asked.

"It's true. This thing would drive around and play real loud creepy music and kids would come running out to buy Ice Cream."

"You're totally fucking with me..."

"Serious..." Joel said.

Henry walked over to the firefly graffiti, "Fireflies were here..."

"By the looks of it." Rylan said.

"So what's your plan?"

"Joel knows a guy... His brother actually, we are gonna meet up with him."

"And last I heard he was in Wyoming." Joel said walking up to them. "So what do you say? You in?"

"Sounds like plan, man." Henry chuckled.

The five explored a couple of houses, searching for supplies Ellie and Sam play a little darts at least still having a good time but they still don't know what this town held, hunters, infected they didn't know. Ellie and Sam complained that they were hungry, Rylan grunted at his stomach rumbling again. After a little water break they pressed on, they arrived at the main street when,

_*Bang!*_

"Get down!" Joel shouted. A sniper was in a distant house popping shots at the five survivors, all of which ducked behind the cars.

"Did you see where it came from?" Henry asked.

"Somewhere down the street." Rylan said.

"Alright, Rylan you take the right and I'll take the left and flank him, the rest of you stay here." Joel spoke.

"No." Ellie argued.

"Before you start, I need you guys to keep him busy. Rylan and I will flank him and see if we can get a clear shot."

"Ok... Hey, be careful you two." Ellie said, both Rylan and Joel nodded.

* * *

><p>Rylan took the right flank behind the houses while Joel took the right. Rylan had his silver ghost drawn, and he quietly snuck through the back yards closer to the Sniper's nest, just as he got closer he heard a gun cock beside his head,<p>

"Well well well..." The familiar voice spoke, "If it isn't Rylan..." The man came around and faced him, along with two other hunters.

"Nice to see you too, Jack..." Rylan spoke tossing his gun to the ground holding his hands up.

"Heh... How are you doing boy?" Jack asked.

_*Distant gun fire and shouts*_

"Been better, and you? Not hanging with David anymore?"

"Camp was overrun, by hunters." Jack said. "I offered my services to them, proved my worth and yet here I am still standing."

"Shame..." Rylan scoffed.

Jack turned to the two burly Hunters, "Alright boys, I'm sure this one will do nicely." Jack smirked.

One of them smirked and set his weapon down, "Shame... I was gonna go for the girl but, better than nothing..." The other hunter grabbed Rylan from behind in a choke hold, while his buddy began unbuckling his belt. Rylan began growling and did something truly inhuman, his hunger gave in...

"AHHHHH!" The Hunter holding Rylan screamed as Rylan began Biting his arm pulling the flesh off the bone, blood spurted everywhere, and the other hunter and Jack were petrified, frozen in fear. Rylan was let go and he turned to face the hunter clutching his arm and lunged at him and began biting the flesh off of the hunters neck,

"ARGGAGAHHH!" _*gurgling* _The hunter choked on his own blood as Rylan ripped out his jugular with his teeth. Rylan stood to his feet and turned to the other two who were still frozen, Rylan didn't even spit the flesh out but began chewing, blood ran down his chin, down his neck. He pulled out his knife, and said,

"_Click, Click, _Motherfucker!" Rylan growled as he lunged at the _rapist_ hunter and drove the blade into his sternum and began stabbing him repeatedly, 20 times to be exact. Rylan then got up wiping the blood off of the blade and his mouth as he glared at Jack.

"Wait... Now Rylan... C'mon..." Jack pleaded. Rylan got up to him closer and took out his magnum and held it by the barrel, Jack turned to run but Rylan hit him on the back of the head with the magnum's handle. Rylan looked around and began dragging the unconscious Jack into the shed of the nearby house, he tied him up and put a bag over his head and shut the door before blocking the entrance.

* * *

><p>"C'mon Rylan where the hell are you?" Joel muttered hiding on the side of the house the sniper's nest was, Joel left a small trail of the bodies of Hunters that came from the house, "Screw it." Joel entered the house alone, and snuck up the stairs.<p>

Joel looked around the room, on his guard when suddenly the sniper lunged at him brandishing a shiv, Joel over powered the sniper and turned the shiv onto him, killing him.

_*Distant gunfire and shouts*_

Joel took over the sniper rifle, Rylan was back with the others and they were still crouching behind cover, Joel provided them sniper support as the four tried to move up towards the house.

_*Bang!*_

"C'mon Joel..." He muttered to himself as he tried to concentrate. "Oh, no... no, no, no, no!" Joel muttered upon seeing that damn jeep coming up and began firing it's machinegun at Ellie and the others. They were trapped and Joel couldn't get a much clear shot at the driver or the gunner, more hunters swarmed the area.

Joel then found a way to get rid of that damned jeep once and for all, shooting the hunter throwing Molotov's from the roof of the jeep... Joel breathed in slowly and held his breath like a real sniper, and then-

*Bang!*

The bullet zipped through the air and struck the head of the Molotov brandishing hunter. The Molotov the hunter held fell into the jeep and shattered spewing flames through out the interior, The driver bailed out sending the jeep to crash into the nearby house. Ellie and the others seemed to breathe easily, from Joel point of view, he sees Ellie grab Rylan's hand and they began walking towards the house, Rylan and Ellie waved down Joel.

"Oh, shit!" Henry screamed as Runners came up out of no where and tackled Henry and Sam to the ground, Ellie helped kill the one on Henry and Joel shot one off of Sam. They all began running to the house being chased by a hoard of Clickers and Runners, Joel abandoned the Sniper rifle but then thought about it... he ran back and detached the bipod module of the rifle and took the rifle with him. Finally they all escaped the death trap of a town, and headed through the wooden fence, across the field and to the Radio tower... Safe.

* * *

><p><em>Nightfall<em>

The group helped themselves to a few cans of beans, peaches, and other canned foods all except for Rylan who jus played with it, Ellie lied on her side across from him smiling at Joel's story.

"Shut the hell up..." Henry chuckled.

"No, I'm serious... It was Tommy's birthday, that's all he wanted to do is just rent two Harley's and drive cross country."

"Aw, man. I could die happy if I could just ride one around the block... What was it like?"

"It was good, it was real good." Joel said setting the empty can down.

"Good? Can you believe this guy?" Henry asked Ellie,

"Ok, you two need a little privacy..." Ellie asked getting up,

"No, no, Ellie, Ellie, this isn't just any regular motorcycle, Okay? You get on that bad boy, you feel that engine."

Ellie looked over to Rylan and smiled a bit blushing and at the same time trying to get her mind of the gutters, she didn't want to think about that... yet at least considering these feelings she had about him.

"Nothing like it." Henry finished.

"How would you know?" Rylan asked.

"Seen it in my dreams... _Vrooom, vroom, vroom." _Henry postured riding a Harley, chuckling.

"Okay..." Ellie threw her hands up, "You coming, Riley?" She asked,

Rylan looked up and remembered that she wanted to talk, "Yeah... Just a sec." He replied. Ellie nodded and exited into the hallway,

"So... You and Ellie?" Henry teased.

"Shut up..." Rylan smirked.

"It's not a good idea." Joel spoke,

"Aw, come on Joel, young love is a beautiful thing..." Henry chuckled.

Rylan dropped the can of food and stood up, "Okay... I'm not talking about this with you guys." Rylan scoffed leaving the two grown ups alone.

Rylan entered the hallway down to where Sam and maybe Ellie was, as he reached for the door Rylan decided to listen in on the conversation.

_"How is it you're never scared?" Sam asked._

_"Who says that I'm not?" Ellie countered._

_"What are you scared of?" _

_"Uhh, lets see... Scorpions are pretty creepy." Ellie said. _Rylan smirked leaning against the door. _"Um... Being by myself." Ellie continued, _Rylan flinched. _"I'm scared ending up alone..." _Rylan pinched the bridge of his nose, and walked down to the other side of the hall and leaned up against the wall, he slid down onto the floor sighing on the though of what Ellie said.

He remembered that they weren't traveling to survive but because he was on a delivery job. He thought about what might happen if they hand her over to the fireflies, that hurt him a little, betraying Ellie that way would tear her apart. Rylan lightened up when Ellie walked out of the room, and was surprised to see him sitting there,

"Rylan?" Ellie said moving towards him and slipping out of her back pack and sat next to him. "What's wrong?"

Rylan turned to her, "I..." He paused then shook his head, Ellie took his hand,

"About what happened back in the city, I... I may be gay but I have these feelings that it doesn't matter anymore... Not out here."

"Ellie, you can't just convert yourself-" Rylan was interrupted when her lips clashed onto his, Rylan kissed her back and pulled her closer, their arms wrapped gently around each other's.

Without even thinking Rylan and Ellie found themselves in an empty room and continued kissing each other, just ignoring their differences, positives and negatives, They needed this, they needed each other for the night. They kissed each other passionately, comforting each other not sexual but sensual as Rylan lied her down onto the blanket and he helped Ellie take her shirt and undershirt off and discarded each other's clothing but kept on their undergarments, just kissing and touching, feeling one another's body heat; a heat that was more comfortable than a fire. Their breathing became labored and Rylan's touch sent shivers down Ellie's spine, goose bumps appeared on each other's skin.

"Rylan..." Ellie gasped.

After some time passed, Ellie fell asleep. Her head rested on Rylan's scared chest, the two were still covered in sweat from their heated passionate sensual bonding. Rylan carefully got up not waking her up, he made sure she was comfortable and warm before getting dressed and slipped on his bomber jacket, he combed back his hair and strapped back on his gear, before leaving he looked back at Ellie's sleeping and half naked form one last time and left the tower in the middle of the night back to the neighborhood which the clickers and Runners wondered off by now.

* * *

><p>Rylan splashed water on Jack's face waking the guy up,<p>

"What the...?" Jack gasped looking up to see Rylan rocking back and forth in a rocking chair, playing with a small Husky cub. Rylan petted the half wolf and half dog youngling feeding it some meat off of a small bone, the rest of the pack lied around him feeding off of the corpses of the dead hunters.

"You know..." Rylan spoke. "Wolves are the worlds most cunning and intelligent hunters. Dogs are however are 'man's best friend.' But... dogs are distant cousins of wolves all of which are known together as Canines. All canines are hunters by nature, that's why dogs chase squirrel, rabbit... because it's their nature as canine... Huskies are both wolf and dogs, they can still be intelligent hunters and best friends. But wild huskies like my new friends here are even better." Rylan went on.

Rylan set the cub down next to it's mother, and walked up to the fire and knelt, He uses his knife to cut off a piece of meat over the fire and began cutting off the charred parts,

"Did David ever tell you the legend of the Wendigo, Jack?" Rylan asked. Jack was frightened to even flinch, "In the Native American folklore one day in the harsh winters the animals would hibernate or go some where warm, the crops would die out, water would freeze. This tribe had no food or water at all, until one tribesman found another way to survive... Cannibalism. One by one he would kill and eat, his fellow tribesmen, the folklore stated that cannibalism is a sign of worshiping the devil and in the story the tribesman was rewarded immortality but lost his humanity, his arms grew longer, hands become razor sharp claws, gets the strength of a thousand men. But immortality comes with a price, and with that your always hungry, you crave more and more flesh of another human being to keep your immortality." Rylan finished.

Rylan then sliced off the last piece of the charred meat, "David was right about one thing... 'Man's gotta eat'." Rylan said shoving a piece of meat in his mouth, "I have to admit... you taste a lot better than I thought you would."

Jack realized that Rylan was eating his leg that was missing from his body, John began whimpering shaking in total fear,

"You feel that Jack... You feel what those innocent people felt when you decided to 'cook' them!" Rylan growled, he took out his knife and slashed Jack's chest. Jack grunted in pain and was in complete fear. Rylan held out the knife to the pack and they sniffed the blood and then circled around Jack, growling hungrily at him, "Now it's time to see how it feels..." Rylan left the shed and began walking back towards the tower,

_*Bark! Bark!*_

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Jack Screamed_. Rylan continued walking into the night shoving the _last bite of homemade _'Jack link's' "_leg" jerky into his mouth,

"I'm stuffed..." The young cannibal muttered leaving Jack to be eaten alive by Rylan's new friends.

* * *

><p><strong><span>THE LAST OF US<br>The Series  
><strong>

**Written By Revanite201 & Exangellion**

**Based off of the Game by: Naughty Dog**

**OC Character by: Revanite201, Exangellion, Drexbann15, WritersWayOfLife, & (of course) Leon Scott Kennedy**

**Special Thanks to The Creators of Such an Amazing Game  
>Benson Russell<br>Ricky Chambier  
>Bruce Straley<br>Neil Druckmann  
>Jacob Minkoff<strong>

**Special Thanks to The Fans  
>Delta Death<br>Domssj  
>GentlestCobra2<br>Lone wolf aka Black Hawk Omega  
>MajorBrad<br>SilvergamerGirl  
>Unfriendly<br>Urahara114  
>Speedy964<br>Northwatcher**

**Sponsored By Sony Playstation  
>Get your Last of us copy for the Playstation 4 right now and see if you got what it takes to survive!<strong>


	13. Sneak Peak

**Coming**** mid January**

**_Just outside _Steubenville, Ohio_._**

_A day after leaving Pennsylvania for good, they set camp for the night just outside _Steubenville, Ohio_. Ellie sat back reading Savage Starlight comics with Maddy lying across her lap, Skylar was cuddled up against his mother. Joel and Rylan sat on the opposite side of the fire with Shadow and Nanook._

_"We should be getting close to Jackson in a couple of weeks or so..." Joel said._

_"Where do we go from there?" Ellie asked looking up from her comic. Joel hesitated to answer in truth,_

_"We ask Tommy where the Fireflies are hold up then we move on..." Joel said. Rylan looked at Joel and narrowed his eyes and Joel only glared at him,_

_"Sounds good... Well, goodnight guys." Ellie yawned. She put away her comic and settled in her blanket, she looked up at Rylan one more time but his gaze was at the fire pit, she drifted off to sleep._

_"We need to tell her..." Rylan said softly._

_Joel looked surprised by Rylan's first words in over 13 hours, "She wouldn't understand..." Joel said._

_"Understand? Joel... Boston is done, we've come this far, let's move on. We don't need to abandon her so suddenly she can come with us."_

_"You don't think I know whats going on between you two? One minuet you tried to kill her the next you are cuddling up against each other." Rylan blushed as Joel went on, "I told you before; keep your histories to yourself. I'm guessing she knows about Jessica then, that it?" Rylan only nodded, "The cannibalism...?" He whispered._

_"No!" Rylan growled softly, "And fuck you for bringing that up..." Rylan got to his feet and began walking away from the camp after he grabbed the sniper rifle Joel got back in Pittsburgh and the rest of his things. Shadow began following him,_

_"We're goin' our separate ways whether you like it or not, you're my responsibility. I made a promise to Tess that I'd look after you and that's what I'm gonna do, you hear me?" Joel growled in a fatherly tone._

_Rylan huffed looking back, "Yes, sir." He mockingly saluting before walking away._

_Rylan walked along the abandoned road of _Steubenville _the full moon was the only light. Shadow was more active during the night which was perfect for Rylan to do some late night strolling his arm didn't hurt much anymore but still had to keep it in a sling, the bullet struck the bone fracturing it and was going to be at least a week for it to heal up. Rylan didn't care about the negative all he cared about was Ellie, it was official that he and Joel have to leave her with Tommy, then what? back to Boston? "Fuck that..." He thought. He just needed some time to recover from killing someone who was a friend, someone who was in the same position he was in at one point in his life._

_"Aw fuck..." Rylan gasped. Shadow growled at what he was glaring at, a camp of hunters. They followed them for over 40 miles, they're being hunted._

**The Last Of Us  
>Episode 13<br>"Strangers"**

**A/N: Keep REVIEWING people! And Happy Holidays from your Writers, Revanite and Exangellion!  
><strong>


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